Sandro Steinbach is an applied economist who helps agri-businesses turn policy and market noise into clear operating decisions. He is Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Agricultural Policy and Trade Studies at North Dakota State University and leads NDSU’s Agricultural Risk Policy Center. Sandro’s work sits at the intersection of trade policy, risk management, and supply-chain economics, with a practical focus on margins, compliance, and market access for firms across the value chain from input suppliers and merchandisers to processors, protein integrators, biofuel producers, logistics providers, retail brands, and others. For industry partners, Sandro builds decision tools and executive-ready analyses that quantify policy exposure, simulate trade and logistics shocks, and stress-test sourcing and price strategies. Typical engagements include: mapping exposure to new policies; evaluating procurement and hedging strategies under futures/option and basis risk; diagnosing bottlenecks in freight and container flows; assessing program design changes in crop insurance and their downstream effects; and translating new rules (e.g., product standards, sustainability and traceability requirements) into concrete cost and compliance plans. He also advises on market-entry sequencing and partnership structuring in North America and key export destinations. Methodologically, Sandro combines economic modeling, causal inference, and partial-equilibrium simulation with firm-level and high-frequency market data (customs trade flows, CME derivatives, freight and port activity, inventory and price series). Deliverables are built for action: concise decision memos for leadership, scenario playbooks for commercial and risk teams, and lightweight dashboards that let managers re-run assumptions as conditions change. If you need to quantify the upside of a new market, the downside of a policy shock, or the ROI of technology and risk-management investments, Sandro brings rigorous economics, clean analytics, and clear language to help you move first and confidently.