News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Australia reports that the largest ever single shipment of barley (77,000 MT) has been sent to Saudi Arabia from Western Australia on the Minoan Falcon.France indicated that it will export 19 MMT of soft wheat flour for 2013/14, which is an increase of just over 1 MMT from last year. 7.25 MMT of the total will be exported to other EU countries with the balance of just under 12 MMT going to world markets. The majority of France's soft wheat exports go to North African markets. It is also forecasting exports of 1.9 MMT of feed barley, most of which will go to North Africa and Saudi Arabia.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that technical work with Egypt is continuing and th...
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
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.