Punish the People Like consumers elsewhere in the world, Indians are now paying about double for vegetable oil what they paid a year ago. This is a bargain when one considers that Chicago July soyoil futures are up 150 percent from last year. India is the world’s largest importer of vegetable oil despite imposing import tariffs north of 30 percent. The tariffs are intended to boost domestic oilseeds production, but they have failed miserably. Ten years ago, India produced 24.1 MMT of cottonseed, palm kernel and soybeans; this year its production is 23.5 MMT. The only thing accomplished by the levy is punishment of the Indian consumer. Chump Trade Policy Trump trade policy involved imposing tariffs to create leverage for negotiating...
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.