The U.S. grows less than 2 percent of the world’s rapeseed, but some think this will change. This past winter and spring, canola was called a popular crop for planting this year. Its lower input costs combined with higher overall oilseed prices made it a good pick. But that isn’t how it has played out. While output is projected to grow 30 percent, it will not be as large a crop as in 2018/19, which was only slightly larger and considered anomalous. The area harvested will be lower this year than last. It is popular but in a very limited way. The same way that growing canola is engrained in Canadian farmers’ planning, producing corn and soybeans is embedded knowledge and infrastructure for their peers to the so...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
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.