Poor harvests in the US this year are causing some industry commentators to predict a second food crisis and repeat of the one seen in 2007-8, with the US Department
Poor harvests in the US this year are causing some industry commentators to predict a second food crisis and repeat of the one seen in 2007-8, with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) warning last week that US corn stocks could likely fall to a 14-year low. Unsurprisingly, soft commodity prices have witnessed a sharp upturn, with the Dow Jones UBS Soybean Oil Subindex having climbed 0.9 per cent to 156.9 over the last five days. Corn prices hit a two-year high on Tuesday: USD5.8425 per contract according to the Chicago Board of Trade. But as reported in Citywire Global this week, Connor Noonan of commodities-specialists Castlestone Management, who run the Aliquot Agriculture UCITS fund, does not believe the current crisis will mirror 2007-8, citing falling rice prices as a key indicator. He said that the two-year corn price high was almost certainly “fundamentally-driven not speculator-driven”. He added that he expects to see continued high demand amongst consumers for soya beans and is now looking towards live cattle as a possible benefactor of rising corn prices. Aliquot was one of the first actively managed commodity index futures funds when it launched in September 2008. The Dublin-domiciled fund uses State Street Fund Services for administration, State Street Custodial Services for custodial and Deloitte & Touche for auditing.
