Milling Wheat The Black Sea market is firmer following the rally of U.S. and EU wheat. Despite the price increase, Russian and Ukrainian wheat remains the cheapest origin by far. The Russian government is expected to start buying wheat for the reserve stocks in the next few weeks. The current weather in southern Russia and Ukraine is disrupting the winter wheat plantings. Excessive rains are keeping farmers off the fields, and the plantings are significantly behind the normal schedule with only 50 percent of the intended area being planted so far. The optimal period for winter wheat planting expires in 10-20 days. Based on the current weather forecast, it seems unlikely that the accumulated planting delays will be recovered in the next...
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.