A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. Farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an agricultural commodities exchange. For most of its history, the exchange was in the then common form of a non-profit organization, owned by members of the exchange. The Merc demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc., which operates both markets. The chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group is Terrence A. Duffy, Bryan Durkin is president. On August 18, 2008, shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX are now markets owned by CME Group. After the merger, the value of the CME quadrupled in a two-year span, with a market cap of over $25 billion.
The Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) is a Chinese futures exchange based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. It is a non-profit, self-regulating and membership legal entity established on February 28, 1993.
Holbrook Working was an American professor of economics and statistics at Stanford University's Food Research Institute known for his contributions on hedging, on the theory of futures prices, on an early theory of market maker behavior, and on the theory of storage.
The Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) is a commodities and futures exchange of grain products. It was formed in 1881 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States as a regional cash marketplace to promote fair trade and to prevent trade abuses in wheat, oats and corn. MGEX became a subsidiary of Miami International Holdings after the two companies merged in 2020.
Gordon Rausser is an American economist. He is currently the Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Dean Emeritus, at Rausser College of Natural Resources and more recently, a professor of the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. On three separate occasions, he served as chairman of the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, served two terms as Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources, and has served on the board of trustees of public universities and one private university. Rausser has been appointed to more than 20 board of directors of both private and publicly traded companies, including chairman of several of such boards.
Roger Winks Gray was the Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was a noted expert on agricultural futures markets.
Richard Gilmore is President/CEO of GIC Trade, Inc., an international agribusiness company with partner offices in Beijing, São Paulo, Quito, Moscow, and Tel Aviv. He is also Founder and Chairman of the Global Food Safety Forum (GFSF), a non-profit industry organization focused on educational and training activities in Asia with offices in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam. A trade economist and businessman with a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, where he was a Fulbright Fellow, Gilmore served as Trustee for Bayer CropSciences, Syngenta Corporation, and Agrium, Inc. He is currently Trustee in the U.S. and Canada for Nutrien. He also served as Special External Advisor to the White House/USAID for the Private Sector/Global Food Security and Managing Director of the Global Food Safety Forum (GFSF) in Beijing. Gilmore developed two agro-carbon instruments: Commodity Plus Carbon (CPC)and GIC Ag Carbon Intensity Index.
Harrison Richard Wellman was professor of agricultural economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and became acting president of the University of California in 1967.
The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics was founded in the 1920s from a $1.5 million gift to the University of California from the Bancitaly Corporation in honor of its founder, A.P. Giannini. This fund has now grown to $20 million that is used to promote and support research on the economics of California agriculture. Members, which include faculty from various University of California campuses, may apply for grants to conduct research on California's agricultural economy and development. The findings are often reported in numerous publications.
Richard L. Sandor is an American businessman, economist, and entrepreneur. He is chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange (AFX) established in 2015, which is an electronic exchange for direct interbank/financial institution lending and borrowing. The AFX flagship product, the AMERIBOR benchmark index, reflects the actual borrowing costs of thousands of regional and community banks across the U.S. and is one of the short-term borrowing rates, along with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, vying to replace U.S. dollar Libor as a benchmark in the U.S.
Ashok Gulati is an Indian agricultural economist and a former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the advisory body of the Government of India on food supplies and pricing policies. Gulati was instrumental in the hiking the minimum support price of several food grains. Currently he is Infosys chair professor for Agriculture at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He is also a member of the Task Force on Agriculture set by the prime minister under NITI Aayog and chairman of the Expert Group on Agriculture Market Reforms (2015). He was an active member of the high-level committee set up by the NDA Government to restructure and reorient Food Corporation of India in order to improve its operational and financial efficiency.
Food speculation refers to the buying and selling of futures contracts or other commodity derivatives by traders with the aim of profiting from changes in food prices. Food speculation can be both positive and negative for food producers and buyers. It is betting on food prices in financial markets.
Scott H. Irwin is the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing and professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Refugio I. Rochin is an American professor emeritus in agricultural and resource economics and Chicana/o studies at the University of California, Davis, director emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and instructor at Pennsylvania State University World Campus. He is an expert on rural Latinas/os and Latina/o Studies.
Derek Byerlee is an Australian agricultural researcher, economist and policy advisor.
Elisabeth Sadoulet is an economist and Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley who has carried out field research in China, India, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Sadoulet was the editor of the World Bank Economic Review from 2010 to 2013, and is a fellow of several scholarly associations in the fields of agriculture and economics.
Trade Data Monitor (TDM) is a trade data company based in Charleston, SC and Geneva, Switzerland. It procures and aggregates monthly import and export statistics for over 110 countries using Harmonized System commodity codes, offers specialized training in trade statistics, and provides clients with a searchable database and built-to-order statistical reports.
Trade data, or import and export statistics, consist of statistical data about international trade, typically organized by time period, country, and commodity.
Johan "Jo" Swinnen is the Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a post he took up in January 2020. From July 2022 onwards, he also became the Managing Director of the Systems Transformation Science Group of CGIAR.
