Markets are focused on two things – the trade talks this week in Beijing and the threat of another partial U.S. government shutdown on Saturday. Today, though, there was a generally optimistic feeling about both that helped push the soybean and corn markets higher. The next round of trade negotiations with China is underway in Beijing with USTR Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnunchin joining the talks. There is a broad but not necessarily well-founded feeling that enough progress will be made to bring about an extension of the 1 March deadline before President Trump ramps up tariffs on $200 billion of imported goods from China. However, hope springs eternal along with awareness that trade negotiations always take as...
From WPI Consulting
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.