Powering organizations across the global agribusiness value chain

Soft Commodities Market Insights and Forecasting

There are hardly any food products manufactured globally that do not involve the use of soft commodities, defined as sugar, coffee, coffee and molasses. The geographical distribution of surplus and deficit regions means that the value of international trade in softs accounts for a considerable share of the overall value of agriculture despite the comparably moderate tonnage this sector represents.

Facts about the global softs commodities market

Coffee is the most valuable agricultural commodity as far as the international trade is concerned
Brazil is the world’s largest grower and exporter of coffee by far with a market share of 33%.
India replaced Brazil as the world’s largest producer of sugar in 2018/19.
With the rise of ethanol demand as a clean fuel around the world, sugar prices have increasingly become a function of energy values as they a major feedstock to its production.
While Ivory Coast and Ghana produce two thirds of the world’s cocoa, the Netherlands is the world’s biggest processing country of cocoa beans.

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Soft Food Commodities sectors

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Cocoa

Cocoa beans are used to produce butter and powder. These products are widely used in confectionery and cosmetics. Cocoa butter is the only butter that melts at human body temperature.

Coffee

Coffee is commercially produced in more than 50 countries and the world drinks over 3 billion cups a day. Coffee producing countries export the bulk of their produce, earning around $20 billion in exports a year.

Molasses & Feed Ingredients

Molasses and other co-product streams from the food producing industry are used in the production of animal feed or food for humans as well as high value fermentation products.

Sugar

Sugar is the main sweetener in food and beverage applications across the world. Apart from its sweet taste, sugar has many other functions in food technology, acting as a natural preservative, texture modifier, fermentation substrate, flavouring and colouring agent, and a bulking agent.

Who we help

Trading and finance

Calculating risk, understanding long-term market movements and responding to volatile price changes are key to your success. Stay ahead of the market with the widest range of global price forecasts and supply & demand data available.

Procurement and manufacturing

Your company relies on you to make timely purchases to ensure the best price while avoiding excess stock or shortfalls. Keep on top of changing market conditions with our forecasts, price and production outlooks and wider agribusiness trend analysis.

Policy and regulation

You are relied upon to stay abreast of the latest news and developments in order to respond quickly to questions from internal stakeholders and communicate relevant and accurate information. Analysis from journalists in Brussels and Washington helps you navigate regulation.

Solutions

At IHS Markit we offer market-leading food commodities information solutions via our Food and Agricultural Commodities Market Reporting and Economics services across 20,000+ datasets. We are specialists in offering comprehensive data and analysis across the global agricultural commodities and processed food markets, with current, short-term and long-term solutions to support all your operational needs.

Current market information

Food Commodities News

Our Food and Agricultural Commodities Market Reporting service, powered by IEG Vu, is the market leader in updates and news on the agricultural commodity and processed food markets, with modular channel access available across the breadth of traded foods including sugar, coffee and cocoa. Coverage spans from pricing news and key trends impacting production to incoming legislation and geopolitical impacts to the market. A subscription also includes access to a range of historic data tools covering pricing, trade volumes and production at a granular level.

Production and Processing News

International Sugar Journal covers the entire sugar value chain, from sugarcane and sugar beet production to sugar processing and sugar refining. Daily news and special in-depth reports cover analysis of market trends, including scientific and technological developments that impact the sugar markets.

Short- and mid-term forecasts

Weekly and monthly production, trade and price forecasts

Our Food and Agricultural Commodities service, powered by FO Licht, is the only service in the market that provides comprehensive analysis of near-term market developments for the 12 months ahead, from market trends to supply-demand, production and price forecasts. Renowned for their market-leading coverage of the sugar, cocoa, coffee, molasses and biofuels market, FO Licht is internationally used as an industry benchmark. Subscriptions also include daily market commentary to provide context for daily trading and procurement workflow needs.

Long-term market outlooks

Agriculture Forecasting

Our Agriculture Pricing and Purchasing Service enables supply chain cost savings with 10-year cost and price forecasts across all agricultural products and inputs, from edible food commodities to paper and plastic packaging and wages. Over 3,000 global data sets are available via a cost analyser platform that supports clients in understanding escalation rates to improve their business buying performance. Data can also be input into a cost modelling framework that breaks down input costs to manufactured food products.

Bespoke solutions

API and Data Feeds

Pricing, supply-demand and forecasts delivered directly to your organisation to support centralised models and trading systems used by team members across your business.

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One-time Data Exports

Over three decades of historical pricing, production and trade data across all food commodities sectors available to purchase to support your organisation with strategic analysis and economic modelling.

Consulting

Consulting services spanning all your needs in the agricultural commodities and processed food markets, from long-term forecasting beyond what is available in our subscription services to market studies for financial investments reviewing everything from market forecasts to competitor intelligence.