Vesper has expanded its proprietary Shea & Cocoa equivalent fats coverage with 10 new Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmarks for Shea butter and its derivatives. Published weekly, these benchmarks combine inputs from renowned brokers to bring transparency to one of the most opaque supply chains in the market.

What's New:

• Expanded Shea Coverage: Weekly benchmarks for Crude, Semi-Refined, Handmade, Shea Olein, and Shea Oil across key West African origins (Ghana, Burkina Faso).

• Broad Market Input: Prices derived from renowned brokers, combining inputs from multiple partners to ensure robust and unbiased market representation.

Why It Matters:

Public price transparency for Shea is extremely limited, leaving procurement teams to rely on fragmented signals or single-source quotes. These proprietary VPIs provide the independent reference needed to verify quotes in a notoriously non-transparent market. Especially with Cocoa price movements of the past years, this was a much-requested product from our users

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: Bookmark specific grades (e.g., Shea Stearin, Crude Shea Butter) for one-click access to the latest weekly prices.

• Price Comparison: Compare different processing stages (e.g., Crude vs. Semi-Refined) to identify value opportunities and spot diverging trends between product types.

• Cost Models: Select these Shea VPIs as ingredients in your Cost Models to forecast the total cost of confectionery, Chocolate or any other formulations using actual market data.

How to access?

Add to new or existing dashboards using the search function, or contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected] to confirm which specific grades are currently active for your region.

Vesper has expanded its proprietary specialty dairy protein coverage with two new Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmarks: WPC80 Regular US and WPC80 Regular EU. Published every Wednesday, these benchmarks provide independent, region-specific price visibility, allowing procurement teams to track actual market spreads rather than relying on fixed premium assumptions or generic proxies.

What's New:

• Weekly Regional Benchmarks: Prices for WPC80 Regular in the US and EU, published every Wednesday.

• Verified Market Input: Prices derived from verified active market participants—both buyers and sellers—so you see where trade is actually getting done.

• Deep Specialty Coverage: Strengthens Vesper’s unique position in specialty proteins, joining our existing benchmarks for WPC80 Instant, MPCs, WPI, Caseinates, and other niche protein products.

Why It Matters:

Relying on "80 Instant" for "Regular" WPC80 can hide the actual cost. These new Vesper benchmarks provide the independent reference needed to verify quotes against actual market prices. By establishing a shared view of the market, buyers and sellers can align on price faster, ensuring fair trade and reducing the time spent negotiating over data sources.

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: Bookmark the US and EU prices for one-click access to the latest Wednesday publication.

• Price Comparison: Compare the new WPC80 Regular prices to the Instant variant and use the Spread function to instantly visualize correlations, spot patterns, and track how the price gap evolves over time.

• Cost Models: Select these new benchmarks as ingredients in your Cost Models to see product costs with WPC80 Regular as an ingredient.

How to access?

These benchmarks are live for all Vesper users with access to the Dairy module. Contact your customer success manager at [email protected] for help integrating these new indices into your dashboard.

Clear your widget selections instantly with the new "Deselect all" button in dropdown menus. Start fresh analysis without manually removing each selection or dealing with cluttered views.

What it does: One click clears all active selections in a widget What you can do: Reset widgets to empty state for clean analysis Why it matters: Faster workflow, cleaner screens, less clicking

Find it in the dropdown menus across most widgets.

Summary: Vesper has launched Technical Analysis, a new forward-looking capability that translates complex market behavior into clear, actionable timing signals. Previously reserved for trading experts using specialized tools, technical analysis is now accessible to every procurement professional through simple, visual indicators. This feature helps teams identify optimal buying windows by analyzing price patterns and momentum, delivering straightforward signals that answer the critical question: "When should I act?"—no financial expertise required.

What's New:

• Three procurement-focused indicators that signal market timing without financial jargon

• Moving Averages show if prices are trending above or below "normal" levels

• MACD detects when price movements are accelerating or losing steam

• RSI identifies when markets are overheated or oversold, highlighting potential reversals

• Clean visual signals (green/red arrows + Interpreted text) that make complex analysis instantly understandable

Why It Matters: Fundamental data tells you why prices should move, but not when the market will react. Technical Analysis bridges this gap by revealing when markets start believing the fundamental story. In volatile markets where timing can mean the difference between saving and losing on purchases in volatile markets. These indicators help procurement teams spot early trend changes, identify optimal entry points, and avoid buying at market extremes, without requiring trading expertise.

How to Use It:

1. Add Technical Analysis to any dashboard by using the search function

2. View the summary panel showing all three indicators at a glance

3. Green arrows indicate upward pressure/momentum, red indicates downward

4. Click the extended view for in depth analysis of the indicators

5. Combine with Vesper's other forward-looking tools for complete forward looking intelligence

Related Features: Technical Analysis completes Vesper's forward-looking toolkit:

• AI Forecasting predicts where prices are headed (the "how much")

• Dashboard fundamentals explain market drivers (the "why")

• Market reports provide expert context

• Now Technical Analysis reveals entry point (the "when")

Summary: Vesper is excited to announce the launch of a new weekly market analysis report focused exclusively on coffee. This report, authored by industry leader Sucafina, will provide in-depth insights and timely updates on the global coffee market.

What's New:

• Dedicated Coffee Market Analysis: A specialized weekly report offering expert analysis of the coffee market.

• Expert Author: Authored by Sucafina, the leading sustainable Farm to Roaster coffee company with a rich history in commodities since 1905.

• Frequency: Delivered weekly to keep you informed of the latest market movements.

• Release Schedule: Available every Tuesday afternoon.

Why It Matters:

Coffee is a critical commodity for many of our users, and this new dedicated report will provide invaluable, focused intelligence. By partnering with Sucafina, we're bringing you expert perspectives and analysis to help you:

• Understand current market dynamics and trends.

• Anticipate potential shifts in supply, demand, and pricing.

• Make more informed purchasing and trading decisions.

• Gain a deeper understanding of the factors influencing the coffee industry, from farm to roaster.

How to Use It:

• Access the new Coffee Market Analysis report in the Market Analysis section of the Vesper platform.

• Look for the report updates every Tuesday afternoon.

• Consider setting up alerts to be notified when the new report is published.

Summary: Vesper has launched Cost Models, a powerful new feature that transforms individual commodity benchmarks into complete product cost insights. This capability allows food manufacturers to combine weighted commodity benchmarks with standardized non-ingredient costs to build accurate product pricing models, delivering unprecedented visibility into true product economics.

What's New:

• Build complete product cost models by combining multiple commodity benchmarks with precise weightings

• Access industry-standard non-ingredient costs (labor, manufacturing, overhead) specific to your region

• Choose from our template library for common food products or create custom models

• Track how each component contributes to your total product cost with automatic updates whenever source prices change

Why It Matters: With record-high volatility across food commodities, understanding how ingredient changes impact finished products is critical for maintaining margins. Cost Models provide complete cost structure visibility for your entire organization: procurement teams can verify supplier price increases, finance can track margin impacts across product portfolios, and sales teams can justify price adjustments to customers with independently verified data. Non-ingredient costs can represent up to 47% of total product costs—a critical component that's now visible alongside your commodity benchmarks.

How to Use It:

1. Access Cost Models through the main dashboard menu

2. Choose between starting with a template or building a model from scratch

3. Select ingredients from your available commodities and assign precise weightings

4. Add country-specific non-ingredient costs by selecting your industry and location

5. Save your model to track cost evolution over time as prices update automatically

Related Features: Cost Models integrates seamlessly with Vesper's existing capabilities:

• Individual commodity price benchmarks (VPI, Partner prices, and Public benchmarks found in prices widgets)

• Incorporate into your own custom dashboards

• Coming in Q3 2025: Forecasting capabilities for your cost models

Summary: Vesper has expanded its news coverage with two dedicated categories: Vegetables & Pulses and Fruits. These new sections deliver focused, timely information on fresh produce markets, including harvest conditions, logistics updates, weather disruptions, pricing trends, and market developments.

What's New:

• Dedicated news category for Vegetables & Pulses

• Dedicated news category for Fruits

• Comprehensive coverage of global fresh produce markets

• Integration with existing news filtering and alert capabilities

Why It Matters: Fresh produce represents critical input markets for many of our core users. These new categories significantly deepen our current coverage, which has primarily focused on price benchmarks until now. By adding dedicated news streams, users gain deeper insights and earlier warning signals about market developments before they impact prices. This expanded coverage provides essential visibility into volatile produce markets, helping users anticipate supply disruptions, track pricing pressures, and identify emerging trends. This expansion responds directly to user feedback requesting more comprehensive coverage across the complete ingredient spectrum.

How to Use It:

1. Find the new categories in the News section of the platform

2. Set up custom alerts for specific commodities within these categories

3. Filter news by these categories to focus on produce-specific updates

Related Features: These news categories complement Vesper's existing offerings:

• Smart news filtering and aggregation

• Custom news alerts

• Fruits and Vegetables price benchmarks on the Dashboard

Summary: Vesper has expanded its oils & fats coverage with a new weekly Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmark for Crude Shea Butter (FOB Tema) from Ghana. This proprietary benchmark, exclusive to Vesper, provides a reliable, independent price reference for an increasingly strategic commodity in food manufacturing.

What's New:

• Weekly VPI price benchmark for Crude Shea Butter

• FOB Tema delivery basis from Ghana—the world's largest shea butter exporting country

• Full integration with existing oils & fats dashboards and pricing tools

Why It Matters: As cocoa prices continue to surge, we've seen increased demand from our user base for alternatives like Shea Butter, which has emerged as a critical cost-effective substitute for cocoa butter. This exclusive VPI benchmark responds directly to user feedback, delivering essential price transparency for those seeking different compositions to limit the effects of cocoa volatility on end product applications. Having Vesper's independent benchmark helps verify supplier pricing and supports more confident negotiations during this period of volatility in cocoa markets.

How to Use It:

1. Find the new Shea Butter (Crude) benchmark in the pricing widgets section

2. Add it to the price comparison widget for side-by-side analysis with cocoa butter prices

3. Incorporate this benchmark into your custom cost models to evaluate how chocolate formulation costs change when substituting with shea butter

4. Monitor weekly updates to identify emerging trends and optimize buying decisions

Related Features: This benchmark complements Vesper's existing offerings:

• Cocoa butter price benchmarks

• Vegetable oil price benchmarks

• Cost modeling for ingredient substitution analysis

Summary: Vesper has enhanced dashboard customization with the ability to set unique currency and unit preferences for each individual widget. This highly requested feature allows users to display multiple markets with different measurement standards side by side in their most relevant formats.

What's New:

• Individual currency and unit settings for each widget

• Widget-specific customization that persists independently of general settings

Why It Matters: Markets operate with different standards across regions and commodities. This enhancement eliminates the need to constantly toggle between general unit settings when analyzing diverse markets simultaneously. Users can now create truly customized multi-market dashboards that present each data series in its most relevant format.

How to Use It:

1. Click the currency switcher in the top right of any widget

2. Select your preferred currency and units for that specific widget

3. Use the three dot widget menu to duplicate widgets as needed to select price sources in different currencies in the same dashboard

4. Note that the general unit selector still functions but won't override your customized widgets

Related Features: This update complements other dashboard customization capabilities:

• Custom dashboard creation

• Analytical toolbox for cross-commodity comparison

• One-click correlations checks

• Exportable charts for reporting