The April WASDE report has been described historically as a non-event. Today’s report was bearish, but prices rose for the most part because it merely affirmed what everyone knew – this is a bearish situation. With that already priced into the market, there was nothing to do but some short-covering ahead of the long three-day weekend. Volume for wheat, corn and soybeans was above the five-day average indicating some conviction. Not uneventful, but hardly the whole story yet to be told. There are still many uncertainties. In particular, the final amount of demand destruction and dislocations to be caused by COVID-19. The April WASDE was likely just the first installment in taking consumption demand down and ending stocks u...
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.