Rationalizing More MFP China has flexibility to delay the volume of its Phase One agreement purchasing under a force majeure provision of the agreement. The Trump Administration appears to be acquiescing to the reality of a Chinese economy unable to meet its normal commitments at this time due to the coronavirus outbreak. This leniency will likely hold provided Beijing does not turn around and instead buy a bunch of agricultural products from Australia and South America. Notably, U.S. farmers may not be very upset about the delay. They have just received the third and supposedly “final” installment of the Market Facilitation Payments (MFP) intended to compensate them for the trade war with China. Farm lobbyists in Washington ha...
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.