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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Structural Changes

Our introduction to international grain trade came in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. At that time most U.S. grain exports were under U.S. aid programs such as PL 480 that allowed the recipient governments, which had little access to dollars or other “hard” currencies, to pay for the grain in their own local currency or through long term loans under concessional terms including well below market interest rates.  Regular recipients would hold tenders often for large volumes of wheat or corn through their embassies or special purchasing offices.   In those days the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) owned seemingly endless supplies of wheat and corn as a result of defaults by farmers against their non-recou...

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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.

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