MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Lebanese millers have again protested strongly against the “official” rate of the U.S. dollar in the country. The rate has not changed in about 20 years with the Lebanese pound pegged at 1,507 to the U.S. dollar. With the shortage of dollars from Lebanese banks, and the very unattractive exchange rate, millers find it very difficult to import wheat which requires payment in dollars. Millers say that they are rapidly running out of wheat and could face a crisis. Lebanon imports about 1.8 MMT of wheat per year. Syria is trying once again to find a way to swap 100,000 MT of durum wheat for 100,000 MT of soft wheat. Syria had been trying to work a deal with Russian interest, but this was not fina...
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.