The Agricultural Outlook Report published by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs established the goal of 88.4 percent self-sufficiency in grain (rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans) by 2032. The agency merges all four crops together because it cannot achieve that level of self-sufficiency in soybeans alone. The current self-sufficiency rate for the four combined is 82 percent. This is because self-sufficiency in rice, corn and wheat is already in the low to mid-90th percentile. Soybeans are the laggard at only 18 percent. China’s average yields for rice, corn and wheat are already above the world average. If China raised its average soybean yield to the world average of 2.99 MT/hectare, it would still only be 24...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
What You Need to Know Today: Wholesale inflation was flat in July, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) unchanged versus expectations for a 0.2 percent increase. Core PPI rose 0.2 percent, also below expectations. The softer inflation data has reduced the odds of a September interest rate incre...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.