Milling Wheat Once again, the Black Sea wheat market was quiet last week. Bulgarian/Romanian wheat remained the cheapest origin for Mediterranean destinations; however, there are only a few small lots offered in the market and it is difficult to buy even one full cargo. Kazakh 13 percent and 14 percent protein wheat is even cheaper than Romanian/Bulgarian wheat, but it is available in coaster size vessels that can only reach the eastern part of the Mediterranean.The EU this week allocated 340,000 MT of wheat export licenses, bringing the total to 15.9 MMT. The EU cannot maintain its usual export pace of 500,000-600,000 MT per week. Assuming that the total surplus is around 18.5 MMT, the export pace should continue slowing down in the com...
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...
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.