Over the last several years, the phenomenal growth and expansion of wholesale commodity trading has begun to have a significant impact on both business practices and strategic thinking across commodity supply chains. Producers and processors of raw materials (commodities) and sellers of finished goods that rely heavily on commodity feed stocks have had to come to terms with a business environment of generally increasing and significantly more volatile prices for their raw materials. Despite some weakening in commodity prices on the back of a stronger dollar and increased supply recently, volatilities remain problematic and in the longer-term, prices will continue to increase as the global population continues to grow and as more of that population become consumers of goods.
