A new era of commodity trading: Czarnikow predicts changes to come

Robin Cave, CEO of Czarnikow, a leading supply chain, pricing and financing services companyhas warned that the trading industry is going through a period of structural change.

Recent supply chain disruption due to Covid-19 has demonstrated the importance of flexibility and the dangers of physical assets driving business. Just as retail has had to embrace online retail or risk closure, the world of soft commodities will have to innovate to ensure food security.

Furthermore, increased global market transparency – brought about by the rapid rise of technology and liberation of market information – has changed the hands in which market power sits. In the commodity agri-markets, the traditional brokerage house has been side-lined.

The company foresees the trading of additional services becoming as valuable as the raw goods themselves. It is predicted that in the longer term, these service-and-goods bundles may even fuse and become re-commoditised.

Robin Cave said, “By diversifying our services we are able to stay true to our core values of embracing change and entrepreneurship, established in the early days of our business. And by combining our founder’s legacy of information transparency with our approach to trade flow optimisation, we are able to provide the best sustainable value for our clients. Now we can share exactly where their product comes from, where it is going and, more importantly, the price paid or achieved.”