Last Monday, Gary Blumenthal wrote on the bullish sugar market as global supplies tighten, and demand stays strong. The March Consumer Price Index showed sugar (and substitutes) up 12.7 percent year-over-year. Other sugar containing products, especially when combined with tight supplies of wheat, were up as well. The overall bakery category was up 13.9 percent, cookies were up 16 percent. Those increases compare to overall food inflation of 8.5 percent. The WASDE revised its projection of sugar imports into the U.S. to increase over last month’s forecast. Sugar from FTA countries (CAFTA and the Dominican Republic) – is expected to drop, but world raw sugar imports are up on USTR increasing the raw sugar TRQ allocation. However,...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. and Chinese officials are expected to discuss agriculture and non-tariff trade barriers ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month, potentially opening the door to additional U.S. agricultural purchases or improved marke...
The U.S. will observe Labor Day on Monday, 7 September. U.S. markets and the WPI office will be closed that day. The next edition of Ag Perspectives will be published Tuesday, 8 September...
Key Takeaways: Drought and changes to the multi-year trend in cow slaughter and retention have the potential to dramatically alter beef trim supplies and pricing, and WPI specifically models three different drought scenarios for fall 2026. Based on our models, WPI expects 90 percent lean...
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.