Hovering over the issue of soybean demand is China’s reported slowing GDP growth. Second quarter growth was reported at 6.3 percent, far better than the 1.1 percent U.S. growth. Though China’s growth in real terms versus year-on-year was an annualized 3.2 percent. Critics will even question that rate, citing the increasing opaqueness of certain economic data and Beijing’s tendency to smooth uncomfortable information. However, the youth unemployment rate has nearly doubled to 20 percent since COVID, and deflation is now the risk. Reduced demand from China and the diversion of FDI to other countries has helped other parts of the world. But some macroeconomists are not impressed with Beijing’s conventional...
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
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.