Price of Non-Enforcement U.S. officials have warned Russia that its announced ban on imports of beef and pork with residues of the lean muscle enhancing drug ractopamine will be violating WTO obligations. Is the ban disappointing? Sure. Is it surprising? No. Codex approved a residue for ractopamine use more than five months ago and still 80 countries impose a complete ban against it. The U.S. and other countries using the beta agonist have not brought a dispute settlement case against any of these other countries, so why wouldn't Russia adopt the same prohibition? The failure to enforce sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards becomes a de facto right to individual interpretations of efficacy.The U.S. is wasting thousands of dollars th...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
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.