Owning the first link in the chain
When the same line runs short season after season, owning its source costs less than chasing it.
A trader who only buys stays at the mercy of what is available. That is tolerable in the abundant lines and expensive in the ones whose market tightens every few years.
Investing in land and livestock was less an expansion into a new activity than an insurance on one end of the book: production whose conditions we know, a quality standard we set ourselves, and first-hand knowledge of what it means to grow the crop rather than buy it.
News
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Two books, one desk
What does a wheat cargo have in common with a polymer cargo? Nothing — except the part that actually matters.
Operations
Why we inspect at loading, not on arrival
A quality dispute after the cargo lands is expensive for both sides. An independent survey at loading is the cheapest insurance in trade.
Markets
A note on freight
The price of the goods is half the story. Freight decides the other half, and it is the half that gets forgotten.