Confident there’s enough soy, palm oil and beef to go around and your policies can weather the risks ahead on everything from climate change and deforestation to reputation and regulation? Think again, say the authors of two new reports.
Financial speculation is the main root cause of short-term price spikes in commodity markets, but could be avoided by forging closer inter-governmental links, say experts.
A European Parliament committee has voted to limit ultra-fast computerised trading on food commodity and energy markets in an effort to curb the kind of speculation that contributed to food price spikes in 2007-08.
Low coffee demands, surplus cocoa stocks, rising sugar prices and a geographical shift in the wheat market, are just a few points raised by Euromonitor’s senior food analyst in its monthly GlobalCast.
A new report from the World Development Movement (WDM) links financial speculation to the rising cost of foods, and calls for effective regulation to curb banks betting on food prices in financial markets.
The German confectionery industry has expressed concern over the fluctuation in the price of its key raw ingredient, cocoa, as a result of speculation.
