Parting Ways – The Strategy
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration issued its first regulatory guidance on genetically engineered crops in 1992 and by 1996 the first DNA modified seeds were going into the ground. European activists hated the idea. Called it Frankenfood and warned that the technology would lead to Armaged...
FOB Prices and Freight Rate App (Updated 2 June)
Update for 2 June 2020: Prices updated through the day's close. Freight Comments for 28 May 2020: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting Baltic Dry-Bulk indices jumped 7-10 percent this week. That sounds like a big improvement, but one must recognize that the market star...
Interactive Ocean Freight Rates (Updated 2 June)
Data Updated Through: 2 June 2020 Ocean Freight Insights and Comments - 28 May 2020 By Jay O'Neil Commodity Consulting Baltic Dry-Bulk indices jumped 7-10 percent this week. That sounds like a big improvement, but one must recognize that the market started at exceptionally low level...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, west of Karachi, has received its first vessel of wheat and fertilizer that is being transshipped by truck to Afghanistan. Gwadar is a deep draft port that can handle large vessels and offers a shorter r...
Ag Review - May 2020
WPI's monthly publication features a review of the past month's market and policy developments. This issue looks at the COVID-19 impact on workers in the food sector, the interrelationship between supply/demand and exchange rates, developments in the Middle East, North Africa and China, details...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Gemcorp Commodities is reportedly supplying 200,000 MT of Russian wheat to Ethiopia with the results of a recent tender. Shipment will be of 11.5 percent protein wheat. Gemcorp supplied Ukraine and Argentina wheat to Ethiopia in 2019...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA The United Nations reportedly purchased 80,000 MT of Ukraine wheat for Sudan that will be shipped in two 40,000 MT lots in May and July. This is part of the UN food aid program. Financial experts are forecasting a 2020 drop in the va...
Faux Pas; Naturally Wrong
Faux Pas Technical level EU trade officials were meeting today to discuss how to put transatlantic trade relations back on a better course. The success of such an initiative was already in doubt but now French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has sunk the idea before it could even get past first...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Morocco has announced that the suspension of duty on common wheat will be extended beyond 15 June until the end of December 2020. With the local wheat harvest forecast to be much below normal the government wants to ensure that wheat...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Egypt reports that local wheat purchases by the government are now at 1 MMT well on the way to the target of 3.6 MMT. However, local press says that purchases are actually closer to 600,000 MT. Coronavirus restrictions in Egypt do no...
Mercosur Regional Analysis
Corn Heavy rains that fell across a large portion of Argentina’s agricultural area last week slowed the arrival of trucks to export ports. The number of trucks arriving daily fell from 2,400 in the prior week week to 1,400 last week. The number of truck arrivals at southern ports was stil...
Sights on Africa; Worse than the Virus; Watershed Protection; Can’t Beat 'em, Join 'em
Sights on Africa Minxin Pei, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund says China gets blamed for practicing economic colonialism in Africa, but there have been large pitfalls for the Middle Kingdom. For one, the value of the assets in Africa that collateralized China’s loans have plung...
Parting Ways – The Strategy
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration issued its first regulatory guidance on genetically engineered crops in 1992 and by 1996 the first DNA modified seeds were going into the ground. European activists hated the idea. Called it Frankenfood and warned that the technology would lead to Armaged...
FOB Prices and Freight Rate App (Updated 2 June)
Update for 2 June 2020: Prices updated through the day's close. Freight Comments for 28 May 2020: Jay O’Neil, O’Neil Commodity Consulting Baltic Dry-Bulk indices jumped 7-10 percent this week. That sounds like a big improvement, but one must recognize that the market star...
Interactive Ocean Freight Rates (Updated 2 June)
Data Updated Through: 2 June 2020 Ocean Freight Insights and Comments - 28 May 2020 By Jay O'Neil Commodity Consulting Baltic Dry-Bulk indices jumped 7-10 percent this week. That sounds like a big improvement, but one must recognize that the market started at exceptionally low level...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, west of Karachi, has received its first vessel of wheat and fertilizer that is being transshipped by truck to Afghanistan. Gwadar is a deep draft port that can handle large vessels and offers a shorter r...
Ag Review - May 2020
WPI's monthly publication features a review of the past month's market and policy developments. This issue looks at the COVID-19 impact on workers in the food sector, the interrelationship between supply/demand and exchange rates, developments in the Middle East, North Africa and China, details...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Gemcorp Commodities is reportedly supplying 200,000 MT of Russian wheat to Ethiopia with the results of a recent tender. Shipment will be of 11.5 percent protein wheat. Gemcorp supplied Ukraine and Argentina wheat to Ethiopia in 2019...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA The United Nations reportedly purchased 80,000 MT of Ukraine wheat for Sudan that will be shipped in two 40,000 MT lots in May and July. This is part of the UN food aid program. Financial experts are forecasting a 2020 drop in the va...
Faux Pas; Naturally Wrong
Faux Pas Technical level EU trade officials were meeting today to discuss how to put transatlantic trade relations back on a better course. The success of such an initiative was already in doubt but now French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has sunk the idea before it could even get past first...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Morocco has announced that the suspension of duty on common wheat will be extended beyond 15 June until the end of December 2020. With the local wheat harvest forecast to be much below normal the government wants to ensure that wheat...
Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis
Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Egypt reports that local wheat purchases by the government are now at 1 MMT well on the way to the target of 3.6 MMT. However, local press says that purchases are actually closer to 600,000 MT. Coronavirus restrictions in Egypt do no...
Mercosur Regional Analysis
Corn Heavy rains that fell across a large portion of Argentina’s agricultural area last week slowed the arrival of trucks to export ports. The number of trucks arriving daily fell from 2,400 in the prior week week to 1,400 last week. The number of truck arrivals at southern ports was stil...
Sights on Africa; Worse than the Virus; Watershed Protection; Can’t Beat 'em, Join 'em
Sights on Africa Minxin Pei, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund says China gets blamed for practicing economic colonialism in Africa, but there have been large pitfalls for the Middle Kingdom. For one, the value of the assets in Africa that collateralized China’s loans have plung...