EU rice consumption has been rising at 1.8 percent CAGR at the same time production has fallen by 30 percent since 2018/19. Italy produces about half of the EU’s rice output, and it has suffered from drought. As a water intensive crop, climate change will have an outside impact on this staple. The other large producer of rice in the EU is Spain but it has entered a long-duration drought. Italy has led efforts to impose safeguards against rice imports, but they have increased to fill the supply/demand gap. Almost three-quarters of Europe’s rice supply is now imported, versus 28.5 percent for the U.S. Global ending stocks have tightened. The global FAO all rice price index is running 20 percent ahead of a year ago, though it has s...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets are mixed this week with larger vessel classes seeing strong demand from iron ore and coal while Supramax and Handysize rates remain steady. Congestion at the Panama Canal has eased but forward booking slots are showing signs of bottlenecks as draft levels...
Key Takeaways: Ghana’s new law classifies all cocoa plantations as “protected farms,” which carries significant implications for farmers. Chief among these implications is the inability to switch area under cocoa to other crops, even when economic or biological conditio...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.