News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The World Food Program (WFP) has delivered 22,000 MT of U.S. milling wheat to Lebanon and Turkey for milling and shipment to Syria as humanitarian aid. Syrian families with bread-baking facilities will be allocated 25 kg of flour per month by the WFP. The balance of the flour will go to local Syrian bakeries for bread production and free distribution to families with limited resources. This is the second shipment of donated U.S. wheat in the past six months.To date, Algeria's 2013 wheat imports are up by about 4 percent for a total of 4.2 MMT. EGYPT COMMENTS As an update to last week's comments regarding the difficulties faced by the Egyptian tourist industry and the effect on both...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
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...
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.