Thursday, August 4, 2011

"Cargill and ABF-owned firm accused of “manipulating” wheat market"

For folks unfamiliar with the companies, this is big business.
Cargill sports a top line of approximately $108 billion (2010). They will be reporting 2011 numbers on August 9th.
Associated British Foods has an annual turnover of $16.6 Bil.
From Food Navigator:

Reports that a company owned by Cargill and ABF bought all the available UK feed wheat last month has renewed calls for tighter regulation of commodity markets.

Traders reportedly told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that Frontier Agriculture bought all available May Futures contracts on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) in the period running up to the tender date in the last week of April.

It has been described as an “unprecedented move” and an attempt to manipulate the market, which Frontier denies.

However, the BIJ says that Frontier is believed to have taken delivery of about 225,000 tonnes of feed wheat now worth about £40m....MORE
HT: Land and Food via Naked Capitalism