Vending Impact on Food Safety: Food industry research firm Technomics says that the retailer meal solutions (RMS; prepared meals for takeout) category in grocery stores is growing 6-13 percent annually, depending on the venue, and that it is a growing profit center versus the usual low margin rest of the store. Basically, Americans are eating more meals prepared away from home but not necessarily in a restaurant. Since Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data suggests that most foodborne illnesses occur as a result of poor handling practices in the home kitchen or local restaurant, large chain retailers with a strong focus on proper food handling should result in lower foodborne illness. In fact, they could have a larger impact than the Foo...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
Developer's Note 24 August 2026: WPI recently completed an exercise that updated the codebase for this app and solved some of the discrepancies between our five-year average calculation and USDA's. There are a few lingering cases where early (late) starts (finishes) to the crop cycle resu...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.