Farmers in Bulgaria and Romania will start planting corn in a few weeks. They will probably reduce that acreage after suffering from low yields during the past three years because of the summer drought, favoring instead a different crop that showed better returns. Milling Wheat The Black Sea market remained firm during the past two weeks due to slow farmer selling and strength of the Russian ruble. Domestic prices have started to weaken as they are $2-5 lower versus early February. However, the FOB market for Russian 12.5 percent protein wheat gained another $2 last week as logistics remain complicated under the winter conditions. Weather in Russia and Ukraine is not currently causing any significant concern. Temperatures in the region ar...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
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.