The country with the largest population is China and India is second but agricultural marketers are always looking for alternative markets. Indonesia has 265 million people living on 17,000 islands with a total arable land base of just 13 percent. While its import policies have been designed to protect its agricultural base, imports have been growing. While bulk commodities have been a key part of the growth, so have been higher value/value-added foods. Major exports are palm oil, coffee, rubber and spices. Indonesia’s food exports are relatively flat but there is room to their food imports in a nation with lots of people but not so much land. ...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize rates turning around from their recent weakness and posting solid gains on improved Chinese demand. Panamax vessels, on the other hand, saw rates decline amid greater tonnage availability in the South Atlantic and falling U.S. Gu...
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.