Self-Punishment China has made its punitive 200 percent tariff on Australian wines permanent for the next five years. The tariff is not import protection for nascent Chinese winemakers but political punishment imposed on Canberra. However, it is concurrently punishment imposed on Chinese consumers. While the French produce an average of 73 liters per capita of wine each year, China struggles to produce 1.3 liters per citizen. The Chinese consumer may not whine about it, and instead increase consumption of Baijiu, but that is a sacrifice to the taste buds next to a fine McGuigan or Penfolds. The move should make Australian wines less expensive to the rest of the world, and can thank Beijing for Chinese sacrifices. Easy Solution...
What You Need to Know Today: Funds remain in control of the market, which means broadly bearish trade for the ag sector. Monday’s massive corn export sale to Mexico helped trigger some short covering and a bit of other end-user buying in corn, which could help stabilize the market. Wheat...
With less than 24 hours until Election Day, control of the Senate remains a wild card. Republicans and Democrats alike say they are poised to win control of the chamber in the new Congress that starts in January 2027. The House of Representatives is more of a lost cause for continued Republican...
Key Takeaways: U.S. hog and pork prices have declined sharply, with December lean hog futures ending October at $58.875/cwt and the pork cutout reaching its lowest level since January 2021. Seasonal increases in hog slaughter and pork production have contributed to price weakness, although the...
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.