SUR without Mirror Clause The EU decided this past weekend to exempt agriculture from its revised Emmissions Trading Scheme, for now, but is under increasing pressure to apply mirror clauses. France is now demanding mirror production requirements for products imported from Chile under a new free trade agreement. Full implementation of its pesticide reduction plan would seemingly force a mirror clause, though it will be complicated. Germany now says it opposes any change to the planned sustainable use of plant protection products (SUR) requirement and it opposes any further review of its impact if it would involve delaying those cuts. Under SUR, each member state gets to choose how it meets the 50 percent reduction requirement. Since...
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.
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...