{"id":232,"date":"2017-12-01T09:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T09:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/?p=232"},"modified":"2018-10-31T09:51:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T09:51:17","slug":"food-for-thought-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/2017\/12\/01\/food-for-thought-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Commodity Conversations Weekly Press Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/news\/stocks\/r-update-1-brazils-anec-sees-more-corn-exports-2017-still-tough-for-traders-2017-11-1009298471\"><span class=\"s2\">Anec<\/span><\/a>, Brazil\u2019s grain exporters association which includes ADM, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus among others, has warned that the sector could be seeing its worse performance in 10 years amid bumper crops and poor margins. A spokesman said that merchandising companies had to really look into their risk management practices, adding, &#8220;We have to rethink what we are doing.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8e0d7ed2-cf8c-11e7-b781-794ce08b24dc\"><span class=\"s2\">Cofco<\/span><\/a>\u00a0International Ltd (CIL) has announced plans to double direct grain purchases from farmers to 60 million mt by 2022 in its bid to rival the ABCDs of agricultural commodities. The CEO said that CIL would have a turnover of USD 37 billion this year as it is expected to handle 110 million mt grains, of which 80% will be sourced from global traders. The<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">\u00a0CEO added that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">plans to launch an IPO were still on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/kticradio.com\/agricultural\/bunge-widens-executive-takeover-payout-scheme-after-glencore-approach\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Bunge<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">has increased the number of executives eligible for cash compensation (if they lose their jobs without cause within two years of a takeover) to include five top executives, from just the CEO previously. A finance expert explained that the move would discourage these executives from trying to stop any acquisition process. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">In the world of vegetable oil, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-louisdreyfus-golden-agri-china\/louis-dreyfus-to-buy-chinese-oilseed-firm-from-golden-agri-idUSKBN1DR2F4\"><span class=\"s2\">Louis Dreyfus<\/span><\/a> is buying Golden Agri\u2019s crushing and vegetable oil refining business in China. The move is part of the trade house\u2019s strategy to focus on core activities such as grains and oilseeds amid declining margins. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/media.corporate-ir.net\/media_files\/IROL\/16\/164878\/wilmar-and-ing-collaborate-on-sustainable-loan-in-asia-27-nov-2017.pdf\"><span class=\"s2\">Wilmar<\/span><\/a> is collaborating with ING to convert some of its USD 150 million loan into a sustainability performance-linked loan, the first company in Asia to do so, and the first in the palm oil industry. The trade house will improve its environmental and social performance in exchange for a reduction in the interest rate. Sustainalytics will be measuring the progress.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Chinese group <a href=\"https:\/\/istoe.com.br\/gigante-chinesa-cccc-quer-comprar-participacao-da-malha-sul-da-rumo\/\"><span class=\"s2\">CCCC<\/span><\/a> continues on its acquisition binge and is now looking at Brazil\u2019s railway sector, having just bought Concremat Engenharia and the S\u00e3o Lu\u00eds port project in Maranh\u00e3o. The group, along with Japan\u2019s Mitsubishi and Sumitomo are each reportedly in talks with Rumo about taking a stake in the 7,208km railway concession in the South Malte. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The commodity trading group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1074e08e-d13d-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6\"><span class=\"s2\">Citadel<\/span><\/a> has asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to look into the \u201cother reportables\u201d category on the Commitment of Traders (COT) reports. Citadel argues that the category lacks transparency yet represents a significant share of the market &#8211; for example 13.8% of the Open Interest in Chicago soft red winter wheat futures. Some say that the category includes prop trading firms and quantitative funds, among others. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">US growers and processors of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmfutures.com\/farm-life\/growers-look-solutions-cranberry-glut\"><span class=\"s2\">cranberries<\/span><\/a> are hoping that the government will give them the green light to turn excess fruit into fertiliser for the first time ever. Interestingly, Thanksgiving dinner this year was probably the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmfutures.com\/farm-life\/relax-theres-plenty-turkey-leftovers\"><span class=\"s2\">cheapest<\/span><\/a> since 2013 given the global surplus of meat and grains, which are successfully keeping prices low. Meanwhile, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-obesity-children-forecast\/forecast-predicts-over-half-of-u-s-children-will-be-obese-by-age-35-idUSKBN1DT3CT\"><span class=\"s2\">study<\/span><\/a> based on computer simulation of national data forecast that 57% of children aged between 2-19 years in the US are likely to become obese by the age of 35. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Last week we talked about the increasing sea freight costs but have you ever wondered how many vessels there are at sea at any given point? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualcapitalist.com\/visualizing-every-ship-real-time\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Check out<\/span><\/a> MarineTraffic\u2019s screenshot to see for yourself. It\u2019s impressive. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Finally, for our tech update, the cryptocurrency is making its way into commodity trading with Ukrainian shipping firm <a href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/news\/3315308-bitcoin-global-commodity-trading?ifp=0&amp;utoken=e18d3542e984cee96fcbd7c91bb7e3a9\"><span class=\"s2\">Varamar<\/span><\/a> announcing it would now accept payments in Bitcoin. This is expected to be a game changer for countries affected by sanctions that can\u2019t use US Dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ecruu.com\">Powered by ECRUU<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-104\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-25-at-13.29.14.png?resize=525%2C149&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"149\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anec, Brazil\u2019s grain exporters association which includes ADM, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus among others, has warned that the sector could be seeing its worse performance in 10 years amid bumper crops and poor margins. A spokesman said that merchandising companies had to really look into their risk management practices, adding, &#8220;We have to rethink what we &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/2017\/12\/01\/food-for-thought-5\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Commodity Conversations Weekly Press Summary&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-summary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9fIT3-3K","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commodityconversations.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}