FSU to Forefront The EU is moving forward on a free trade agreement with Ukraine and announced that Serbia is now a candidate for EU membership. Meanwhile, proponents in the U.S. of waiving Jackson-Vanick and granting Russia permanent normal trading rights (PNTR) fear they may have a battle on their hands. However, the expression of concern seems overstated. These days, economic concerns trump human rights concerns, and failing to waive Jackson-Vanick is a bad economic deal for Americans. Moscow's position on Syria and Iran does not help, but Russia will have plenty of new WTO trading partners come this summer and U.S. leverage is negligible. Already the U.S. steel industry may need to challenge Russia in the WTO over scrap steel exports...
What You Need to Know Today: Declining crop conditions ratings and shaky results from the Pro Farmer crop tour sent grains sharply higher on Tuesday. The Pro Farmer tour in Ohio pegged the state yield at 180.18 BPA, about 5.5 BPA below the tour’s 2025 estimate. Similarly, the Pro Farmer...
Based on a Depression-era statute, President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of exports to the U.S., or about 5.2 percent of the $383 billion worth of goods the U.S. imported from Canada in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Of that total, about $39.3 billion was agricu...
Key Takeaways: Brazil’s growing role in global agriculture is accompanied by a major vulnerability: the country imports approximately 88 percent of its fertilizer needs. High natural gas costs and development challenges have limited domestic nitrogen and potash production despite Brazil&...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.