Both Brazil and the U.S. have issued protests over a Thai legal ban against imported commodities and food with residues of the weed killer paraquat and the pesticide chlorpyrifos. The ban will prevent billions of dollars of trade in wheat, soybeans and some foods. The two countries have asked Thailand to instead follow Codex maximum residue levels. Thailand had also threatened to ban the use of glyphosate. Some other countries ban domestic use of paraquat and chlorpyrifos but not imports. One point of leverage is Thai rice exports. Rice is a heavier user of plant protection products than wheat or soybeans and it is the top agricultural export by Thailand. In fact, one of Bangkok’s goal is to become a larger exporter of rice. Me...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes, with the U.S. hitting Iranian bridges, energy sites, and military infrastructure. Iran launched a missile into Kuwait that damaged a desalination plant. Crude oil futures surged on heightened Middle East tensions, providing supp...
Key Takeaways: The EU heatwaves have coincided with key maize crop reproductive timing and featured high nighttime temperatures, a cruel two-sided blow to maize yields. France, much of western Europe, and Hungary have suffered the worst of the heat, with yield potential collapsing. WPI&r...
Congress returned this week from its Fourth of July recess, with another break scheduled for the month of August, to face a busy agenda before adjourning for the August recess. Congress has several priorities, including the National Defense Authorization Act, a potential third reconciliation pa...
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.