Dry Bulk Markets The Capesize market is up more than 80 percent from last week’s report due to greatly improved iron ore demand in the Atlantic. There has been a notable increase in inquiries for vessels from Brazil and West Africa for the August/LH September time frame. Additionally, Australian miners have ben active “most days”, which is boosting demand for vessels in the Pacific. In the Atlantic markets, coal shipments from Colombia – a rare sight – emerged and helped tighten freight in the region. Panamax and Supramax markets saw increased demand from the U.S. Gulf and expectations are that demand for Brazilian cargos should pick up for August and September as well. Stronger grain cargo demand a...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices dropped sharply with traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. There were reports that Iran was behind an attack on a cargo ship near the coast of Oman, which would be a violation of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. Pr...
On Wednesday, the White House submitted a national security supplemental spending request for $87.6 billion. The majority of the request includes funding for the conflict in the Middle East, but there are agricultural provisions as well. The supplemental funding package includes more than $11 b...
Can we really expect a bushel of corn to carry an environmental passport throughout the entire food system? One that reliably documents its carbon footprint, biodiversity impacts, water use, soil carbon, and other environmental attributes all the way from the farm field to the consumer? This is...
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.