The last trading day of January saw a continuation of the story that sparked the 2020/21 bull market: Chinese buying. News of a massive corn sale to China sent corn futures to a new contract high and a bullish upside breakout while wheat and soybean futures traded mostly sideways in their respective trading ranges. Funds were net buyers in corn, wheat, and soybeans while aggressively shedding the longs they obtained earlier this week in the cattle markets. China bought 2.108 MMT of 2020/21 corn yesterday, which is the largest daily corn export sale since a 3.7-MMT sale to the USSR in 1991! USDA also reported that China secured 132,000 MT of soybeans for 2020/21 delivery. Today’s daily export sales announcement brings China&rsqu...
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.