Hurricane Ida has finished barreling through the critical Louisiana grain export infrastructure and the question is what will be the impact? First, while Ida is a force of nature, the geographic area of the storm was much smaller than Katrina, meaning a smaller storm surge from Ida. Moreover, much of the damage from Katrina was due to failures in infrastructure (especially levees) that subsequently received investment. While Katrina was devastating to New Orleans, it was less damaging to U.S. agriculture and exports. From a risk standpoint, the southern coast and port area hit by Ida represents a quarter of the U.S. oil supply, over 40 percent of oil refining and over 60 percent of the export movement of grain from the Midwest. It is the l...
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.