For Cuba as with all other nations, adverse economic policy is the disease; poverty and hunger are the resulting symptoms.U.S. aggies have pitched their hopes that normalized relations with Cuba is a potential salvation for the otherwise bearish market for their products. Indeed, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack accompanied President Barack Obama on his historic trip to the island nation under the impression that gains are possible for the American industry. U.S. Congressman Erik Paulsen (R-Minnesota) summarized the attitude when he provided his analysis of Cuba’s situation as: “There is a food scarcity issue.” In fact, this is a fairly common issue in countries with malfunctioning economies and nonexistent in those with properly functioning ones...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
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.