MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Saudi Arabia and the UAE have announced that they will provide more wheat to Sudan – a total of 540,000 MT of wheat has been pledged with more than 200,000 MT shipped to date. Both countries have set up an aid package of about $3 billion for the economic and financial stability of Sudan. The latest FAO report on Saudi Arabia forecasts that cereal imports will increase about 15 percent to 17.4 million MT – barley at 7.7 MMT and corn at 5.2 MMT along with wheat at about 3.2 MMT and rice at 1.3 MMT. Saudi’s local grain production will reach 1.0 MMT – 700,000 MT of wheat, 180,000 MT of sorghum and about 90,000 MT of corn. Wheat production is up by 200,000 MT due to the new gover...
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.