Regional News On 1 December, Bulgaria lifted its import ban on four agricultural products (wheat, corn sunflower seed, and rapeseed) from Ukraine. Last week, Russia announced an export quota for grains of 24 MMT for 15 February through 30 June 2024, which would imply monthly exports of about 5.5 MMT. The ban does not apply to EEU member states. Kazakhstan’s government is considering a proposal to place an export tax on wheat that would be a minimum of 20 percent or €60/MT. The proposal includes an effort to ban hard wheat exports for a certain period. Additional details are lacking and there is no timeline for the export tax or the export ban. Milling Wheat After selling off to 2- and 3-year low...
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.