Russian Grain Markets: 9-15 October 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 14 October, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 38 million hectares, 86.3 percent of the planted area. The volume of grain produced was 84.2 MMT with the average yield of 2.22 MT/hectare (1.88 MT/hectare in 2012). Specifically, wheat was harvested on 21.7 million hectares, 90.4 percent of the target (51.2 MMT produced with the average yield of 2.36 MT/hectare), barley was harvested on 7.5 million hectares, 87.9 percent of the target (15.2 MMT produced with the average yield of 2.04 MT/hectare), corn was harvested on 722,000 hectares, 29.8 percent of the target (3.8 MMT produced with the average yield of 5.2 MT/hectare). Sunflower seed was harvested on 2.3 milli...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s new EU rapeseed crushing margin models point to weaker processing returns over the next four months due to higher rapeseed procurement costs and weaker product values. Statistical forecasts call for German crushing margins to decline from €181/MT to €...
Key Takeaways: The tariff burden rose sharply in 2025 and 2026: the effective rate on imports in HTS Chapters 1–24 increased from 1.53 percent in 2024 to 6.11 percent in 2025, before averaging 5.68 percent in January–August 2026. Headline rates tell only part of the story: exemptio...
Markets are getting into the Halloween spirit, handing out more tricks than treats. There has been some encouraging news, but it hasn’t been enough to slow the broader slide. Now buyers need to show up with something other than another “Charlie Brown” rock for the bag. Somethi...
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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.