Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market has been quiet this week and no major trades were reported. The EU allocated 364,000 MT of export licenses, bringing the total to 10.8 MMT versus 7.9 MMT allocated at the same time last year.The wheat surplus in Romania is almost exhausted. In Bulgaria, we estimate that there is a balance of about 300,000-400,000 MT left. Such a surplus is normal for this time of the year. Farmers are not in a hurry to sell because the market will be driven higher in January/February/March by the slowdown of Ukrainian and Russian exports. The wheat price in Bulgaria practically has not changed since the end of December despite the EU and U.S. markets' sharp falls.The weather in Bulgaria and Romania remains favorab...
What You Need to Know Today: Cattle futures extended their sharp selloff Friday as weakening cash cattle prices, deteriorating feedlot profitability, and reduced packer demand continued to weigh on the market. The inability of futures to sustain a rally following last week's bullish Cattle on...
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 €...
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.