Rabobank’s Commodities Outlook for 2020 – What Does it Mean for Food Companies?

Rabobank has recently published its agri commodities outlook report, “Supply Slide Saves Grounded Demand”. In this edition of Consumer Foods to Go, Cyrille Filott is discussing the outlook with its lead author, Rabobank’s own Stefan Vogel. Demand growth for agri commodities in general is pedestrian, while there is still abundant growth on the supply side. However, prices for some commodities (including sugar) are very low and may move up from here. We discuss risks to price movements like African Swine Fever, trade wars and obviously weather. The key message of the report is that demand needs to pick up dramatically to cause a big move in prices; otherwise supply, partly driven by technology, will more than keep up with demand.