Mecardo Blog

• “I won’t use swaps because if the market goes up I will lose”
  

• “I have heard of a wheat farmer who lost his farm as a result of taking a Grain Swap”

• “The bank always wins; they know more about the market than we do”

• “With swaps, someone always wins and someone always loses”

Sound familiar?

These are just some of the statements we have heard from farmers when the issue of swaps is raised.

“Canberra bubble” has been coined the word of the year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre. Mecardo suggests that the equivalent in 2018 for agriculture is “Social Licence”.

Both are somewhat vague in meaning, although they are regularly trotted out by commentators and the plethora of industry opinionated columnists. We have noticed that “social licence” is now pushed to farmers and other agriculture industry participants as something to be “earned”.

In recent weeks Lempriere Grain went into administration, taking with it debts of A$18.8m. This is not the first grain company to fold and will not be the last.

We felt like it was an opportune time to revisit counterparty risk in light of recent industry rumours of a number of grain traders at risk.

Is counterparty risk a major issue, and how can you protect against it?

There’s no question that the live sheep export trade is an important market for many Australian sheep producers, but it also supports a raft of other businesses along the supply chain. Help us to determine the value of the live sheep trade to regional Australia and participants in the supply chain by completing these short surveys.

Greasy wool prices have weakened in the past couple of months, from high levels, so the natural question is “What is going on?”. This article is an assessment of the background to the current wool market to help understand where prices are likely to go.

Drought, destocking, and strong overseas cattle prices. The current picture of the cattle market isn't unfamiliar, with many factors on the surface looking remarkably similar to the period just before the breaking of the 2014 drought. So can we expect a repeat of the historic rally?

Producers of 100% Angus cattle have been enjoying a premium over non-Angus breeds for most of the last five years. As Wagyu producers have learnt in recent times, the presence of a quality breed branding doesn't guarantee a sustainable premium. Robert Herrmann discusses the risks and opportunities for the Angus breed in his presentation at 'Angus through the Ages'.

What happens when you put 200 women from the meat industry in one room? Thanks to Sheep Producers Australia I was able to find out at the launch of Meat Business Women Australia.

The networking event held in Melbourne brought women from right across the country, and right across the meat supply chain, including producers, processors, retailers, industry representatives, as well as this fortunate market analyst.

The Commodity Conversations podcast has been running for the past month and we think they are great to listen to when in the tractor or on the commute.

In this update we provide you with a recap of our recent episodes.

In this series of blog articles, we’re taking a look back at the year that was for agricultural commodities and provide our insight for the year ahead.

This installment highlights 2018’s key movements in grain markets and what to keep your eye on in 2019.