December 2007 Archives
Commodities were hot in 2007. and they will stay hot in 2008. But when most people think commodities they think Oil, Steel, Copper etc.
But the biggest stories will be in food commodities… A couple of stories
- CNN has a video about the “Queen of Oranges” - an uneducated illiterate Yemeni woman who is one of the biggest wholesalers of oranges in Yemen and the Middle east. Apparently she sells 270,000 dollars of produce per day!
- Mango producers in the Ratnagiri district and the rest of the Konkan area of India have never had it so good. Apparently the global demand for Mangoes “all the year around” has given rise to giant orchards on the Sahyadri hills in the Konkan. Using special strains of mango trees, they manage to produce mangoes in just 2 years after planting as compared to 7 years previously. The mango plants and mangoes are germ resistant and a single plant produces 40 kilos of mangoes per year.
Agri-products and “manufacturers” of Agricultural products will really prosper as two trends take hold -
- As supermarkets push on to create their own private label products, newer customers for the producers are created. Old intermediaries will be pushed out.
- As the middle class consumers in China and India get more comfortable with the concept of “I eat the food I want to eat, when I want to eat it”, the year around production in warm climate countries like India, Kenya and Brazil to fulfil this want will increase the business of agriproducts in its entirety, and exotic produce in particular
So
a) If you’re a producer - get serious about positioning - market your product as an attractive addition to the menus of consumers and target retail customers to support them in their private label efforts
b) If you’re an investor - start researching agricultural companies and their position in the “value chain” from farm to shop
c) If you’re a consumer - enjoy your meal!
Seth Godin has just posted on how it was getting important to share internal information to get externals quickly involved. It reduces costs and speeds things up… As a small - time consultant, I can only agree. But then again, it all depends on trust and the business you’re in (at that moment)..
My client trusts me, of this I am sure. And I get to look at a lot of sensitive information. BUT, if we ever have to communicate to the external world, it goes through not one but two layers of senior management and legal review.
And I think that’s right. Because, much as we all love to embrace change and trust and all the fantastic possibilities of truly open communication and collaboration, there are times when watching what you say and write does make a hell of a difference.
Warren Buffett recently talked to a bunch of students at the University of Florida’s MBA school. The talk goes about how to pick companies, understand them, and views on different trends in the economy. Have fun watching and learning from one of the best of them…
Whoever wrote this text needs to stand up and be counted… He must be an awesome copywriter… It’s inspirational and gets me (in any case) to work harder.
On a more sober note, McKinsey and Company has a new series of articles on the McKinsey Quarterly titled “Building a better India”. Take the time to read it.
