Market Information Sources Available Through the Internet: Daily to Yearly Market and Outlook Reports, Prices, and Commodities and Quotes

2.1 Internet Sources on Market Information:
Market Reports and Prices

This sub-section covers all sites which offer market data and information from daily closing prices to weekly, monthly and yearly market reports. They differ by the information, data-banks and reports provided at each Internet site, by their sources of information, by the regions covered or by commodities. This Market Reports sub-section has five areas: (1) USDA market wire service, agricultural marketing service, and economics and statistics system, (2) international and world markets, (3) Africa, (4) within the United States of America, and (5) specific commodities such as grains (including rice), soybeans, fruits and vegetables, hogs, cattle and livestock (including forages), seafood, cotton, nuts and fertilizer market information.

2.1.1. USDA Market Wire Service, Agricultural Marketing Service, and Economics and Statistics System

USDA reports and Ag. Market Information - The complete set of reports. Updated daily. This information for grain and other commodities is organized by state and nationally by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources' web site at: http://ianrwww.unl.edu/markets/

The Mann Library has set up historic data series, and indexes on U.S. prices received by commodity. Published by N.A.S.S., the indexes of prices received by farmers includes monthly and annual prices, most for 1908-92. Click on the Connect button.

To obtain market information reports and data-sets from the Economic Research Service (ERS), the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the World Agriculture Outlook Board (WAOB), go to the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University. Set up in collaboration with the USDA Economics and Statistics System, their web site can be reached at: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/usda.html

This site includes more than 140 agricultural data-sets, most in spreadsheet format. You can find data on subjects such as worldwide textile fiber production, farm production expenses, European Community wheat supply, milk and dairy product sales, food spending in American households, U.S. meat supply and consumption, fertilizer use, ozone records for the Northeast, and so on. The site also includes more than 100 report series. Searching the system, you can find reports about U.S. agricultural income and finance, farm production expenses, dairy production, industrial uses of agricultural materials, agricultural trade update, livestock inventory, and also world agricultural supply and demand estimates and outlook reports.

Looking at wheat for example, monthly update and outlook reports can be found on supply, disappearance, tariffs, quotas, area, price, stocks, inspections, trade and cash prices for leading classes of wheat at U.S. markets. Many annual reports are also available.

For those interested in world agricultural supply and demand estimates, full-text monthly reports provide the most current USDA forecasts of U.S. and world supply-use balances of major grains, soybeans and products, cotton, and much more. All of these reports may also be emailed directly to you free of charge. More information on this service can be found in section 2.4.

Another good web site is the Market Information System (MIS) developed by the University of Florida. It provides agricultural market information received from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). It covers many commodities such as grain, and data is given by city. You may find their site at: http://gnv.ifas.ufl.edu/~marketing/market.html

2.1.2. International and World Markets

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) offers regularly many current commodity analysis reports on world markets and trade for different commodities such as grains and tropical fruit. The site is worth visiting from time to time to see what is newly available. It may be found at: http://www.fas.usda.gov/commodity.html

You may also search through their market research page, where you can find country reports prepared by FAS attaches covering nearly 130 countries (see attache reports). You may also look through their "Trade Leads" section reported daily, and read their food market overviews which provide valuable information about some of the United States' most important export markets. You can also find out how to subscribe to the "Foreign Buyers List" compiled by FAS overseas staff, or review their market-specific reports providing detailed information on marketing certain products in specific countries. These web pages can be found at: http://www.fas.usda.gov/agexport/exporter.html

Another interesting tool at the FAS web site is the U.S. import and export statistics for bulk, intermediate and consumer-oriented foods and beverages (BICO). You may search by specific commodity or by country. Their web page can be found at: http://www.fas.usda.gov/ustrade/

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has also a very good web site. Available through the site are many great features and related information sources. For example, follow their Global Watch series of pages, and in one you will find global information on early warning systems for sub-Saharan Africa: food outlook, food shortages, food crops and supplies, crop prospects and situations, as well as Sahel weather and special alerts. Also, world food outlook reports on cereals come out every two months. Be sure to look up their web pages on the World Food Summit held in Rome in November 1996.

Another great web page at the FAO site is the FAOSTAT Agriculture Statistics Database which contains time-series data (starting from 1961) for over 210 countries and 1500 items on the production and trade of primary and derived crops and livestock products; agricultural machinery; fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides (trade only); land use, population and food aid. For example, if you wanted to compare FAO statistics for wheat production over the last five years between the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Australia, you can simply request this information from their database and within a minute(s), the application gives the comparison between production, area harvested, yield, and so on, of those countries in the order selected. You can then download a copy in worksheet form!

Finally, among other related sources and links, the FAO has started setting up web pages on agricultural marketing, food outlook and yearly commodity market reviews. The Agricultural Support Systems Division of FAO (AGS) carries out work in agricultural marketing, agricultural machinery, tools and equipment, agricultural processing, farming systems and farm management, post-harvest management and rural finance. For example, they helped set up the web site on market information in Zambia. In the food outlook section you will find quarterly information on the world cereal situation, supply and demand, current production and prospects, trade, carryover stock, fertilizer data, export prices and freight weights. And in the commodity market review section, you can access economic data from the past few years with reasons for the variations and changes as well as some forecasting. These web pages cover many commodities such as beverages, sugar, bananas and citrus, cereals and cassava, oilseeds, oils and oilmeals, livestock and milk products, agricultural raw materials such as for cotton, fishery products and forestry products.

• The FAO homepage can be reached at: http://www.fao.org/

• For the page on agricultural marketing go to: http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/agricult/ags/agsm/marketin.htm
  English, French and Spanish available.

• For the FAOSTAT database and producer prices, go to: http://apps.fao.org/

• For the 1999-2000 Commodity Market Review, the URL is: http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/economic/esc/comtrade.htm

• The people at the Commodities and Trade Division have set up a wonderful web page to get weekly prices (and monthly and yearly averages) of most major export commodities - from 1989 to 2000. Highly recommended! Go to: http://apps2.fao.org/ciwpsystem/ciwp_q-e.htm

• For the GIEWS quarterly food outlook web pages, the URL is: http://www.fao.org/giews/english/fo/fotoc.htm

• In addition, all the GIEWS publications, including Foodcrops and Shortages, Food supply situation and crop prospects in sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahel weather and crop situation and Special Reports and Alerts are available at: http://www.fao.org/giews/english/giewse.htm

• The last three sites can be found starting with the FAO's Economic and Social Department at: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/

• For the Global Watch archive web pages go to: http://www.fao.org/news/global/glolib-e.htm

• And for the World Food Summit web pages, go to: http://www.fao.org/wfs/homepage.htm

Pink Sheet. The World Bank offers some commodity price data in their data, analysis and forecasts section, in what is known as the "Pink Sheet." These monthly reports offer only a few data on food and represent annual averages over the last three years. Of interest, you may also find some interesting data on global economies, social indicators, balance of payments, and so on. http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/pinksheets/

Also from the World Bank, the Global Commodity Markets section provides coverage of major primary commodities, including price forecasts, regional price indices, transportation costs, and access to the World Bank's Macroeconomic Outlook. It replaces Commodity Markets and the Developing Countries, which was discontinued as of December 1998. It is published four times per year (January, April, July, and October). Each 80-page issue, which will be available in both print and electronic form, will contain price forecasts for 46 primary commodities (for the next three years, and for 2005 and 2010), detailed market reviews for 27 major commodities, and newly expanded sections covering global and regional price indexes. Although subscription is necessary for full copy (highly recommended!), you can view the summary and the featured article for free. The link is: http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/gcmonline/index.htm

From agricultural commodities to metals and energy, get the latest market news and analysis from the Financial Times.

For the latest information on Commodity, Energy and Financial Futures, go to the Reuters web site.

For up-to-date commodity futures prices and market news, select Bloomberg.com

Visit the International Grains Council's Monthly Grain Market Report Summary.

Although in French, the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement or CIRAD, produces statistical sheets with price trends in international markets annually for several (hard to find on the net) tropical agricultural commodities. A good resource, well presented, the link is: http://www.cirad.fr/publications/documents/produitstrop/sommaire.html

Another web site contains baseline projections produced by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) for the U.S. agricultural sector and international commodity markets. Their agricultural outlook reports cover many commodities in U.S. and world trade. Their web site can be reached at: http://www.fapri.missouri.edu/

2.1.3. Inside the U.S.

For the United States, many web sites exist that offer local state information for different commodities through university extension services, exchanges and boards of trade.

Outlook: These pages provide information on the likely price distributions of key commodities over the coming year. Such information helps farmers and traders make decisions on when and in what ways to market their grain (e.g., whether to sell at harvest, store on-farm in anticipation of higher prices later in the season, lock in a price at harvest via the futures market, buy or sell options). When combined with enterprise budget data, the information can also be used in deciding which crops to produce in the coming year.

• U.S. Agricultural Outlook Forums: WAOB - 1997 to 2000 Forums.
• The ERS monthly Agricultural Outlook and Agricultural Outlook Archives
• Weekly Outlook Report from a joint project of the University of Illinois and Purdue University Cooperative Extension Services, brings marketing analyses to agricultural producers and other interested parties throughout the Midwest.
• Or you might want to read up on Illinois and Purdue's Weekly Outlook Newsletter, or Grain and Livestock Price Outlook Newsletter at: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/farm.doc/marketing/newsletters.html
• Jim Hilker's Market Outlook and Probabilistic Price Forecasts for livestock and grains at Michigan State University.
• The Progressive Farmer Magazine also has an outlook report. The rest of the web site is quite appealing and also includes links to daily and weekly reports, plus a selection of prices and quotes.
• Follow Atinet's Agnews web page for daily, weekly and monthly reports on California and elsewhere.
• For the dairy sector, connect to the California Department of Food and Agriculture's monthly Price Letter.
• View also the California Agricultural Statistical Service's monthly outlook web pages, which includes annual bulletin summaries and more.
• And click here for the links to ALL the other State statistical offices across the U.S.: it's all here!

For grain, a very good site is the Minneapolis Grain Exchange's web page on links to cash market reports, with data from the Minneapolis, Portland and St. Joseph, MO, AMS Offices as well as a link to all AMS Grain Market Reports. This site can be found at: http://www.mgex.com/

As well, weekly market data sheets for Missouri may be found through the University of Missouri's "Agricultural Electronic Bulletin Board" of its Commercial Agriculture Extension Program. Farm marketing and FAPRI are links of interest. Their site can be reached at: http://agebb.missouri.edu/

General The North American Agricultural Marketing Officials (NAAMO) try to promote education, communication and cooperation and enhance worldwide market opportunities for North American agricultural products. The NAAMO Discussion Area has been created for use by state (U.S.) and province (Canada) agricultural marketing officials as a means of communication through the Internet. It is intended to be a forum to post questions, views, problems, comments, and advice. Their site can be found at: http://www.naamo.org/

2.1.4. Canada

• The Market Analysis Division of Agriculture Canada, provides timely market information, analysis and forecasting of supply, demand, trade and prices for the domestic and international grains and oilseeds sectors to industry and governments. Its Bi-weekly Bulletin provides market information and in-depth analysis on specific issues covering domestic and international grains and oilseeds markets. The publication discusses a wide range of topics including country profiles and commodity outlooks with an emphasis on Canadian competitiveness, market development, diversification and value added. Also available through email, this subscription is free.
• Markets reports: British Columbia | Alberta | Saskatchewan | Manitoba | Ontario (Statistics) | Québec (French, Statistiques) | New Brunswick | Prince Edward Island | Nova Scotia | Newfoundland & Labrador
  Pool Commodity Trading Service - market comments, western Canada | Manitoba Pork Marketing | Alberta Pork | Ontario Cattle |

2.1.5. Latin America

• Chile. For those interested in South American countries, the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture has a great site. Although in Spanish, you will find prices and time-series data for various commodities such as grains, fruits and vegetables, and for various fertilizers as well. Also available at their site are general macroeconomic data on Chile, agricultural outlook reports as well as a few grain prices for Argentina. Select one of the choices on the left: Cifras de la Agricultura but all the links are interesting.
• Perú. The Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture has set up excellent market information web pages. You will find monthly prices for various regions in Perú for grains, different types of potatoes, fruits, vegetables, several meats, eggs, milk and coffee. Production, yield, price of fertilizers, trade, weather and cost of production statistics are also available. Start your search under Estadística agraria and select daily, monthly to yearly statistics.
• Argentina. A much improved web site, the Ministry of Agriculture has made available much market information and outlook reports. Select from the list on the left, you will find many statistics and prices for various agricultural commodities, on soils, trade, costs of production and much more. The Agriculture Series offers daily to yearly and time series market information. Although mostly in Spanish, a good part of the site is available in English, just click on the English Version link at the top-right. For example, you will find well presented documents in English on mad cow disease and on Argentina Wheat.
• Argentina. Another site with many statistics, try CIARA's web site.

2.1.6. Europe

• U.K. Commercial:
  • Farming On-line are based in the UK and are a subscriber service for 2500 high end U.K farmers, they have direct feeds to Dow Jones for up-to-date commodity news, plus a joint venture with the UK's National Farmers Union to make them a leading supplier of UK on-line agricultural information. Try their free trial service.
  • The Home Growers Cereal Authority Market Information (HGCA MI) web site is quite interesting, although commercial and you need to subscribe, some pages of their weekly bulletins are free. They promote a variety of publications but you will find some pdf files available on weekly prices, trade statistics, and daily reports for the UK, EU and world grain markets, simply click on the tabs on the right side of the home page.
• U.K. Free market information:
  • Gerson - UK grain traders, market reports and prices.
  • Dotfarming - Daily prices for grain, oilseeds, potatoes, cattle and sheep (registration needed, is free).
  • BDR Agriculture - Daily grain market report.
• France Statistiques agroalimentaires, prix et données du Ministère d'Agriculture.
• Germany For Deutschen Agrarinformationsnetz, go to DAINET's web site.
• Poland You can get weekly prices for wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, piglets, eggs, apples and onions, milk and milk products. Information on commodity exchanges is also available in Polish, and twice a week, they publish wholesale prices of fruit and vegetables. Available from the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Food Economy Department of Information
• Moldova and some major markets from Russia, Ukraine and Romania Many good to links to market related business information in the area and of particular interest are the weekly retail and wholesale price information for fruits, vegetables, livestock and more, - in Italian and English. See CAMIB
• The Lithuanian Agricultural International Trade Agency has set up a web site on market information for Lithuania. Although most of the web site and all publications are in Lithuanian, some pages are available in English. Published every three weeks, their publications cover dairy, meat and grain sectors. Look for the Rinkos informacija page to find market information. For publications, go to Leidiniai internete. They also offer a link to Food-fair.com, a virtual trade fair where companies can put up information about themselves, their products and contact information. Similar to the fair above, a subdivision of the virtual trade fair is dedicated to the Baltic Region Baltic.food-fair.com
• Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Chuvashia and the Kyrgyzskoy Republic.
  • Many resources are available from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation. Available in English is the Ukrainian agrimarket weekly report. Click here for this report. On the Russian home page just below the date, click on the first word just below on the left to Ceneinformation. It will bring you to a page with price information on various sources such as Information from the inter-republican universal commodity exchange in Moscow where prices of metals, oil, and foodstuffs on the international exchanges are available. Plus, prices, outlook reports and more are available for the Kyrgyzskoy Republic with prices of basic food goods for markets in provincial centers and for Bishkeka; for Chuvashia and for Uzbekistan. Further market related information is available from the Ministry's web site: such as fertilizer and machinery prices, statistics on agricultural production, databases, economic and statistical indices, grain production, milk yields and production (weekly), statistical information on the regions of Russia, economic news of countries of the CIS, and information on inputs, hay/fodder, harvests, and mechanization.
  • Only in Russian, you can get the state of food markets information bulletin (every two weeks) for the various regions in the Russian Federation here. In it you will find retail prices for meats, poultry, oils, milk and cheese, bread, flour, sugar, and various fruits and vegetables. Selling prices at the wholesale level are also available for the same commodities. Producer prices are also given for the regions on several grains, oilseeds, sugar, fruits and vegetables, pigs and more.

2.1.7. Asia-Pacific

• Australia F@rming Online, gateway to Australian agriculture, offers a good number of market reports on cotton, financial, grains, livestock, meat and wool. Browse other sections of the web site such as weather, news, forums and even buy or sell machinery or livestock.
• At the Australian Farming Virtual Library you can find a good number of links about Australian agriculture. A couple of links of interest available in the Commodity Prices and Markets section and several other links that cover a wide range of agricultural issues.
• New Zealand Agri-Fax is a commercial information service which provides New Zealand agricultural prices and other primary product prices: it includes lamb prices, beef prices, and venison prices, wheat prices, dairy product prices including butter, casein and skim milk prices, wool prices, forestry log prices, pine log prices, rural finance, and more. Some free information is available - and try their Beef Price Calculator.
• Indonesia. Very little market information here but you will find much agricultural information on area harvested, production and yields for many commodities. The Badan Pusat Statistik web site can be found at: http://www.bps.go.id/statbysector/agri/
• The Center for Market and Information Development at the Ministry of Agriculture in Indonesia, runs an agribusiness web site where some price reports and market surveys may be found although not all has been translated to English. A good number of other links to relevant market information are also available. To visit the site, click here.

2.1.8. Africa

All in French, the Market Information System in Burkina Faso has a web site where you can download monthly average commodity data from 1992 to 1998 plus weekly data and monthly averages for 1999. The weekly bulletin covering 37 markets is available in the left column. The link is: http://www.statistika.net/tab_sem.html

Available in French, the Observatoire des Marché du Riz in Senegal has weekly market bulletins mostly on rice but includes some maize and millet.

Available in French and English, the Market Information System in Mali offers monthly bulletins, some good links, and materials on l'Observatoire Du Marché Agricole and l'Assemblée permanente des chambres d'agriculture du Mali.

Available in Portuguese, the market information system in Mozambique offers weekly market information bulletins called Quente-Quente, as well as monthly bulletins. All files are in pdf or Adobe Acrobat format. Strong analysis, many tables and graphics, they even include comments on foreign markets. The bulletins may be found at Michigan State University's food security project Mozambique web page, go to the bottom of the page. The link is: http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/mozambique/index.htm

In Zimbabwe, you may start on their homepage where you can find the links to market information, commodities, inputs and weather, as well as other related links at: http://www.samara.co.zw/CFU/index.html
For agricultural prices in Zimbabwe, for grains (weekly) go to: http://www.samara.co.zw/zimace/
For livestock (monthly), go to: http://www.samara.co.zw/CFU/marketing/livestock.html

For South Africa, the South African futures market (SAFEX) has a lot of information available and consists of financial and agricultural divisions. To reach the SAFEX web site, go to: http://www.safex.co.za/
But for those interested in obtaining the data directly, link to: ftp://mail.safex.co.za/pub/

Apart from SAFEX, other stock exchanges in Africa do exist. Although market information is hard to find, for those interested, exchanges for over 18 countries are listed at Mbendi's site: http://mbendi.co.za/exaf.htm

For other links to agricultural resources in South Africa, the best place to start would be the National Department of Agriculture. It has links to regional departments and related SA agricultural sites. The URLs are: http://www.agric.za/

Other sources of information on Africa can be found on other well organized web sites depending on what you are looking for. The USAID has an excellent site for regional information on Africa. Available through their site is the Africa Data Dissemination Service, AfricaLink, Famine Early Warning System, Horn Information Exchange, Initiative-Africa GII Gateway and information on natural resources management. Some market information is available such as food and calorie production, food aid, and so on. You may download agricultural statistics for each African country through their data dissemination service or find reports on food security, production or aid through other links, such as teff production for Ethiopia or calorie production in the Sahel. Through the famine early warning system, monthly country updates are available as well as special reports. For example, you can find a report on "Maize meal prices continue to fall in Zambia" for the month of July 1996. The AfricaLink section has good information on Internet service providers (ISP), connectivity and costs in Africa. Their web site is located at: http://www.info.usaid.gov/regions/afr/

The World Bank has set up web pages on Africa that offer special reports, based on recent bank-sponsored research, such as "Ensuring Food Security in Mali" in their Findings section, or you may also read infobriefs on best practices. Reports do not necessarily pertain to agriculture but cover many subjects. You may find their site at: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/default.htm

The SADC Food Security Programme - SADC Food Security and Technical Administrative Unit (FSTAU) in Harare - Zimbabwe. At this Internet site, you will find food security quarterly bulletins, food security updates, agro-meteorological updates, monthly bulletins on the status of the growing season, local seeds system news, satellite images, database on food and agriculture in SADC and much more. You can access specific information for each of the SADC countries, based on the SADC FSTAU and FAO-GIEWS databases. You can also click on a map for individual country information. Other sections available from the web site are: SADC Regional Early Warning System, Famine Early Warning System, Remote Sensing Project, Food Security Training Programme, Small Scale Seed Production Project, Food Security Database Project, SADC EIS/GIS Technical Unit, Regional Food and Nutritional Information System, and the SADC Centre of Communication for Development. The URL is: http://www.sadc-fanr.org.zw/

2.1.9. Specific Commodities

Grains

• CIMMYT offers a variety of publications, of particular interest is the Annual Maize and Wheat Facts and Trends report. Go to Resource Center at the top, then click on Economics Program in the right column.
• Looking for Grain Boards, Grain Pools, Grain governmental organizations, Grain companies, to Grower associations, Producers and Research, this is a good guide: the Grains Virtual Library. Currently replaced with the Grain Zone.
• A well organized page of links to grain marketing across the U.S., for daily and weekly market commentaries, brokers, quotes, charts and more, visit the Grain Marketing Page.
• Rice: Probably one of the hardest and most elusive commodities to find any market information on the web.
  • The Singapore Business Times, now AsiaOneMarkets, offer a great variety of market information on commodities (SICOM Futures). Not only can we get daily FOB Thai rice prices (covering several white, broken, loonzain and parboiled rice) but prices for many more agricultural commodities varying from palm, kernel and coconut oil, to coffee, cocoa, sugar, copra, nutmeg and rubber from Liffe, Rotterdam, to CBOT and Singapore of course. Non-agricultural commodities such as crude oil and metals can also be found. BT commodities also puts out an excellent Weekly Commodity Summary (updated every Monday).
  • Rice yearbooks and outlook reports are available from the Mann Library from 1996 to 1999. It includes U.S. rice production, supply, disappearance, trade, and price data. It also includes state acreage, yield, and production data; U.S. and world price series; and price support program statistics.
  • The FAO regularly publishes data on rice export prices and has an export price index with sub-indices on long, medium/short grain rice as well as sub-indices on high and low quality rice. The index was constructed in the 80s and has regularly been revised and weighted, to reflect the huge changes that have occurred in the rice export market. They are published in rice market reports on a monthly basis. See the Rice Situation Update. You may also find information on rice in their Commodity Market Review section.

Soybeans

Probably the best web site for soybean information is StratSoy. StratSoy is an information and communication system for the United States soybean industry, funded by the United Soybean Board, developed and maintained by the University of Illinois. Nice site, their URL is: http://www.stratsoy.uiuc.edu/

Palm Oil

The Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council offers daily, weekly and monthly market information for the country's palm oil industry, including FOB prices in US$. Select the Market and Statistics link. You may also find a good number of statistics and prices at the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia or (PORIM).

Fruits and vegetables

• A new and upgraded site, this is the place to be when looking for market information for fruits and vegetable. Make sure to obtain a password registration. The site has daily price information on more than 120 fruit and vegetable commodities from all the wholesale markets of USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Today's Market Prices now includes a weekly report from the Rotterdam Fruit and Vegetables Exchange Auction Market, that reflects the movement of the most important point of entry of Europe; a bi-weekly report from Japan (the F&V prices of the Tokyo Central Wholesale Ota Market); and daily Shipping Points prices of the USA, which makes them somewhat unique in their category.
• Although the MIS web site also covers many other commodities, you may find terminal market prices for fruit and vegetables for different cities around the world. They take their information from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Look for the AMS F&V links. You may find their site for terminal market prices for fruit and vegetables at: http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~marketing/market.html
• The National Food and Agricultural Policy Project at Arizona State University - East, offers annual historical data and forecasts until the year 2008 for the U.S., value of production, per capita consumption and crop utilization.
• Calling itself "The Global HomePage for the Fruit & Vegetable Trade," FruitNet's objective is to supply up-to-date and accurate prices of fresh fruit and vegetables in the main European and South African markets. You may find the latest Johannesburg market prices as well as daily market prices of certain areas of the world if you follow the London report link. You may reach FruitNet at: http://www.fruitnet.com/
• The Global Agribusiness Information Network offers world market information and reports on tropical horticultural products such as papaya, mango, vanilla, avocado, and so on. They also offer access to articles from periodicals such as "Tropical Produce Marketing News" and "Market Asia." You may also link up to wholesale price reports covering North America and Europe. You may also want to check out their other agricultural links. You can reach their site at: http://www.fintrac.com/gain/

Sugar

A great resource of news, prices, and reports on sugar. But best of all, they have set up a great number of links by country, very useful. Visit Sugar Online.com. Be sure to visit the rest of the web site as they have an amazing number of related links. A real one-stop site on sugar.

Hogs

A good site to start is the Packer's Trading Company's hog marketing forecast web page. Based in Chicago, they use the Chicago Mercantile exchange for settlement prices. They can be found at: http://www.agfutures.com/index.html

Cattle and Livestock

• For U.S. live and feeder cattle cash and futures markets as well as daily market reports, try the Texas based trading floor at: http://www.agcenter.com/default2.asp
• The Livestock Marketing Information Center has excellent sources of information from weekly production to prices, quick market reports to current situations. They also have a very good number on links related to the sector and elsewhere. Well organized and easy access.
  For more market information on livestock and other sectors, the Weekly Insiders Retail Report provides busy buyers and sellers with a quick snapshot of market trends and conditions in the poultry, meat, seafood, dairy, and egg industries. The report is in pdf format.
  Agriculture.com is another site not to be missed: market news, prices, reports and many good links.
  Two other great agricultural resources for livestock are: Oklahoma State University's Livestock Virtual Library and The Breeds of Livestock Information Project.
  Finally, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association maintains a site with a wealth of information on science & regulatory, conservation, federal lands, property rights, farm policy, tax & credit, food & nutrition, foreign trade and much more. In addition, it has judicial, regulatory and legislative updates covering the above topics as well as beef safety, cattle health & well-being, international markets, live-cattle marketing, inspection, check-off, position papers, bills, press releases, you name it. See the Cattlemen on the Hill.
• Meatnet is one of the best sources of links around. Statistics and prices from around the world. Take your time, there are many good links.
• A good complimentary resource is Iowa State University's Animal Market Information web page.
• Kansas State U. offers Livestock and Crops Market Updates (in pdf format). See also the K-State Livestock & Meat Marketing Institute's web page. The prices, basis charts, and livestock market outlook radio interview are posted weekly every Monday.
• For information on the economics of raising and marketing beef cattle, check out Harlan Hughes' Market Advisor for prairie beef producers.
• Forages, pasture, silage and hay. Following livestock, market information of forages may be of great interest. Morgan's web site provides forage economics such as a table summarizing hay prices throughout the U.S. as well as links to the USDA weekly hay reports. They have also just begun adding private hay reports with the Auction at Fort Atkinson, Iowa. Other locations are expected to be added shortly. There is also pasture and silage information available. In addition to their work on forages, in joint venture with the American Beef Cattleman magazine (the official publication of the Beef Improvement Federation), their site is the Purebred Beef Cattle Sales site as well. Here you will find listings of beef seedstock auctions as well as private treaty, sale managers, feedlots, book publishers and other services to the beef industry. Use the following links by section: for forage, hay, silage and pasture, and for purebred beef cattle sales.

Seafood and more

One of the rare and few places where you find market trends and conditions for seafood. Click Seafoodnet.com, developed by Urner Barry Publications Inc.

Cotton

• World cotton prices are taken from the Cotlook A and B indices. For market summaries, trends and graphs, Cotlook daily, cifquotes and the indices, try Cotlook Limited's web pages at: http://www.cotlook.com/
• The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) also has web pages under their cotton information section that include many papers, graphs and trends, mailing lists, and supply and use by country. To obtain the latest market information and monthly updates, you must pay for the service. The rest of the site is free and most is available in pdf format (Adobe acrobat reader). You can find ICAC at: http://www.icac.org/icac/english/main.html

• The Agricultural Commodities Exchange site is for use by all players in various sub-sectors: growers, producers, traders, brokers, manufacturers and retailers who buy, sell and trade in agricultural commodities. One of the very few who have information on NUTS, cashews, walnuts, hazel nuts, pistachios and much more! You can advertise your company, and bid or offer for a growing range of commodities. There are reports on factors affecting prices and production. Weather reports and price and production graphs are also being developed.
• The International Tree Nut Council has several pages on world consumption and production trends, a good overview of annual statistics and comparison between countries. The link is: http://inc.treenuts.org/
• Learn more about chocolate and find the daily price for cocoa beans as well as a market summary at the International Cocoa Organization.
• The International Coffee Organization offers market related information such as world trade, production and daily to monthly prices for various world markets of Coffee.

Fertilizer Market Information - Commercial:

• The FMB Group based in the U.K.
• FERTECON, based in the U.K.
• Visit CRU, also based in the U.K.

• The International Fertilizer Industry Association has a great statistics web page where you can find production, imports, exports and consumption of N, P2O5 and K2O, from 1973/74 to1999/2000, by year and by country/region/world; and their annual fertilizer indicators, a compilation of graphs and diagrams illustrating the development in different regions of the world of the capacities, production, consumption and trade of nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizers, and certain important intermediates and raw materials. The development of world cereal production and stocks and the crops on which fertilizers are used, is also illustrated. You may also want to read their Fertilizer Demand and Crops reports as well. You will also find interesting materials to read in their Publication section.