The steps back to normalcy in Greece have had a short-term impact on southern Europe. With yields falling today on Portuguese, Spanish and Italian government bonds, questions remain as to whether this is just the calm before the storm and what will ultimately happen to the euro.Greek banks reopened today for the first time in three weeks. This occurred after a €7 billion financial bridge was approved last week by EU finance ministers that will allow Greece to avoid defaulting on a bond payment and clean up arrears with the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, austerity measures are in place, which have increased the value-added tax (VAT) on many items that will impact agriculture. The VAT rose from 13 percent to 23 percent on meat, ve...
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.