Category: Agricultural Commodities
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Saturday, April 09, 2011
Food Inflation Harsh Times – A New Normal / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
The approaching storm I wrote about in last year's article The Rising Cost of Survival has certainly struck many countries with a vengeance. I thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit.
In 2008, a spike in food prices resulted in food riots around the world. The recession brought prices down while record crops allowed some stockpiles to be rebuilt and gave us a respite from the turmoil.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 08, 2011
Potash Stocks Grow with Agriculture Commodities Boom / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Planet Earth is in the midst of a food bull market. Wellington West Capital Markets Managing Director Robert Winslow follows small-cap agricultural stocks that can give investors both diversification and leverage to achieve double-digit percentage growth. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Robert shares some small-cap names where investors can plant capital and reap vigorous rewards.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 01, 2011
Russia, U.S. and Indian Wheat Crops Impact on Agri-Food's / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Has been, it seems, more than a year since any supply bullish/price bearish news on Agri-Foods has come out. Latest news on outlook for Russian and Ukranian wheat was not good (Financial Times, 30 March). World will not know if either nation will be able to export wheat till the second half of 2011. While at the same time, the appraisal of the North American wheat crop, now in the ground, is lackluster due to dry conditions.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Potash Supply Stocks / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Cloth-dying and soap-making have employed residue from boiled plant material since ancient times. The plants are reduced to brine and that evaporated until only the useful “potash” remains. In the 19th century the active ingredient in this precipitate was fit into the periodic table as “potassium” with the symbol “K”. Potash has stuck for potassium bearing salts mined in modern times. The salts are processed into fertilizer, now 95% of the K market, which returns potassium to the plant world to increase agricultural yields. Potassium is irreplaceable in this application, so growth of its supply is considered critical to expand global food output. Potash salts are extracted in about a dozen areas, but only a few have large scale. As with other bulk minerals, the boom in potash exploration is keyed to both greater supply diversity and more capacity.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Agri-Food Price Inflation Chickens Coming Home to Roost / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Frailty of monetary policy under delusional Keynesians is evident whenever we think about Agri-Food. Price increases for Agri-Foods may be causing measures of consumer prices to rise in many countries. That "inflation," which it is not, is causing some discomfort for politicians around the world. The textbook response, per the ineffective and inbred Keynesian economists, is to tighten monetary policy, perhaps raising interest rates. We ask one simple question: How does raising interest rates cause the supply of Agri-Food to rise, forcing prices lower? Will higher interest rates keep the price of shoes from rising?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Outlook for Agricultural Commodities / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Soft commodities have experienced some steep selling in the days since the Japan disaster, as speculative money has exited more 'risky' assets. But having enjoyed a 9-month stellar run, a pullback was overdue. Considering a broad softs ETF as a proxy, at the time of writing the complex is now nearing oversold levels:
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Food Is Fuel, Rising Food and Energy Costs Triggering Uprisings / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
How is the bowl of Wheaties you ate this morning linked to a barrel of oil? In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Bob Moriarty, founder of 321energy.com, explains why the cost of producing food is directly correlated to fuel and picks which companies are poised to benefit from the rising value of potash.
The Energy Report: You wrote that "the uprising in Egypt began as a protest against the rapidly rising cost of food and energy." You went on to say that "it seems obvious that food and fuel are the same thing under a different cloak. Energy is food is population." Can you elaborate?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Agri-Food's Correct as Silver Stays in Fantasy Debt Fueled Bubble Land / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
I said, "Scotty, Beam me up." However, the message was apparently garbled, and Scotty apparently beamed me back instead. Since it seems so much like 2008, it must be Scotty's fault. Or, is it possible that Bernanke's Lap Dogs are again distorting asset prices? Surely they must have learned something from making the same mistake over and over. Even a cat learns faster.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Growing Investment Opportunity in Agriculture / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
With the world nearing 7 billion, there are a lot more mouths to feed. Throw in that many in emerging markets are requiring higher-quality diets and you've got a squeeze on the global food supply.
Bushels of corn reached their highest prices in nearly three years this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that corn inventories will fall to levels not seen since 1996.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 11, 2011
Investors Should Focus on Chinese Agri-Food Stocks Opportunities / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Today a sign of true wealth is owning a horse. Cost of feeding them has escalated dramatically as Agri-Food prices have risen. Owning two horses is an ostentatious flaunting of one’s wealth. Paying an Iowa farmer for corn with which to produce ethanol is still criticized by many poorly informed individuals. They might better serve to lower food prices if they attacked the frivolous feeding of Agri-Foods to horses. Perhaps horse ownership should be banned except on working ranches. That all said, any Agri-Food shortages around the world are due to government policies. Horses and weather only serve to exacerbate the situation.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Key Wheat Growing Regions in China Hit by Drought / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Yet another example of how water will ultimately be the most important resource on earth [Jun 18, 2008: The Ultimate Shortage ---> Water] and why arable farmland is most likely the best long term (40-50 years+) investment possible. Shorter term.... after the Russian droughts/fires of last year, Australian floods this year, and now the Chinese situation, American wheat farmers should be handed a bonanza.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Agri-Food's Price Trends Diverging from Gold / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
An old saying goes, "Lots of ways to skin a cat." Given the rise in Agri-Food prices over the past about four years that may be a skill that becomes rediscovered in the years ahead. While growing up near St. Louis one of the more interesting experiences was a visit to the now long shut downtown open air farmers' market. One of the rules for the purveyors of meat was that rabbits had to have the unskinned feet attached. No one apparently wanted to buy cat, and have some unscrupulous seller substitute rabbit.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 21, 2011
Soybeans Close to Key Resistance / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Last year’s recovery in Soybean prices has so far continued in 2011. However, key resistance levels have now been approached on the long term chart which puts us on the lookout for a better pullback phase.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 10, 2011
Food Inflation: The story of 2011 and Investment Strategy for Food / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Quite clearly, there is nothing more important than understanding the charts for food in 2011, esp of the primary articles. We have seen the breakouts in Sugar and Wheat futures, have done to food inflation across the world as it has crept into core inflation thus forcing central banks in India and China to hike rate, thus almost ending the dream run of the equity markets over the last 24 months.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 10, 2011
Onion and Sugar Prices Ominous Omens of the Agri-Food World of Tomorrow / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
ONIONS! Will the onion shortage in India bring down another government, as was the case in 1998? Onions in India are much like garlic in Italy, an essential part of the good life. In India, onion demand is exceeding the ability of the nation to supply onions. Price of onions has doubled(AFP, 22 December 2010). Spice prices, of which India produces half of the world's supply, have had a similar surge(Financial Times, 31 December 2010). Onions and sugar are ominous omens of the Agri-Food world of tomorrow.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Agri-Food's Impact on Christmas and 2011 Clothing Prices as Cotton Price Continues to Soar / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Hopefully, those of you celebrating Christmas included lots of clothing in your gift shopping. Reason for that is giving or buying clothing is likely to become considerably more expensive in 2011. Our first chart below portrays the rather dramatic move in U.S. cotton prices over the past 90 weeks. Most noticeable is the price burst since late Summer, when the world discovered that global demand for cotton exceeded the global supply of cotton.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 10, 2010
Identifying Top Seeds in the Potash Boom / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
As growing middle classes in developing nations feed the need for fertilizer, how to increase production has become the real issue in agriculture. Major potash producers are lining up to fill that need. The Energy Report spoke with Adrian Day Asset Management Chairman and CEO Adrian Day and Wellington West Capital Markets Analyst Rob Winslow to get their take on the potash sector, and which companies have the sustainable competitive edge.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Is Agriculture Depleting Our Water Supply On Purpose? / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Tony D’Altorio writes: Here’s a riddle for you: How do you fit 37 gallons of water into a single cup?
Answer: Just fill it with coffee. After all, the original beans need water to grow too, just like they need water to convert into a usable form.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Agri-Foods Investments Continue to Soar in Value on Growing Global Demand / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
While preparing final copy of December issue of The Agri-Food Value View last week we thought that most of the relevant weather news had been covered. Then from down under came news of too much rain. Australia is not somewhere from which we expect to get such news. More often lack of rain is reported. That rain came as some Australian farmers were attempting to harvest the wheat crop. Yes, Australia is on a different weather cycle from Kansas City.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
How to Profit from the Looming Pop in Corn Prices / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Jack Barnes writes: We've already seen the effects of the global currency wars - the so-called "race to the bottom" that's helped send gold to all-time-record highs.
And we'll soon see the fallout from the worldwide skirmish over rare-earth supplies, which is certain to impact the high-tech sector.
Read full article... Read full article...