The coronavirus spreading out from Wuhan China has supposedly put markets on edge, especially equities. The death toll from the disease is rising but is less than 30 at this juncture. Looking for a proxy situation, the SARS virus back in 2002/03 also started in China and eventually spread to 26 countries, killing a total of 800 people. The data suggest that there is no reason for concern in commodity markets. During the SARS virus outbreak, global consumption of major grains and meats continued on their exact same growth path. This is true for China as well except consumption of wheat had begun its decline whereas soybean demand was at the start of its faster trajectory upward. While the SARS outbreak involved several countrie...
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.