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.

Added dedicated news coverage for packaging markets, tracking regulatory developments, sustainability initiatives, and material demand shifts across agricultural supply chains. Our 12th commodity-specific news feed, powered by AI models that filter global outlets to deliver only relevant packaging intelligence.

Why It Matters: Packaging costs can represent 10-30% of total product costs, yet most procurement teams track these markets separately from ingredient intelligence. Policy changes, material innovations, and input cost movements in packaging directly impact your bottom line and product competitiveness.

What's New:

• AI-filtered news from global outlets, eliminating noise

• Global and regional packaging market trends

• Regulatory developments and sustainability initiatives

• Material demand shifts and supply constraints

• View packaging feed individually or combined with all 12 commodity feeds

• Custom keyword notifications

• Direct keyword and region search within the feed

How to Use It:

1. Access Packaging News in your lefthand bar navigation

2. Set up keyword notifications for topics you're tracking

3. Search by keyword or region to find specific developments

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 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 expanded our egg market coverage by integrating official quarterly UK egg production data. This enhancement provides critical supply information to complement our existing egg price benchmarks, delivering deeper market insights for procurement teams in a category known for significant volatility.

What's New:

• Quarterly UK egg production data from official government sources covering:

  • Eggs, Fresh

  • Egg Enriched Derivatives, Caged

  • Eggs, Free Range

• Reporting:

  • Production volumes across different egg types

  • Quarter-over-quarter production trends

  • Year-over-year production comparisons

Why It Matters: Egg markets have been extremely volatile, mainly due to supply side constraints caused by HPAI recently. With production levels directly impacting price movements. This new production data helps procurement teams anticipate market shifts by tracking supply dynamics, providing essential context for buying decisions and supplier negotiations in a challenging category.

How to Use It:

1. Navigate to the production widget in your dashboard

2. Select the relevant product in the dropdown

3. View production trends quarterly or evolutions compared to the prior years

Related Features: This update complements our comprehensive egg market coverage:

• Vesper Price Index (VPI) for 16 egg products across different production systems

• Expert market analysis for the egg sector

• Global news feed specific to eggs and poultry

• Price benchmarks across caged, barn, and free-range production systems

Launching supplementary bi-weekly cocoa highlights from Vesper's in-house analytical team, complementing the regular market commentary from independent expert Martijn Bron. These additional reports focus on technical analysis, derivative pricing, and weather insights to support decision-making during unprecedented market volatility.

Why it Matters: With cocoa prices at historic highs, procurement teams need comprehensive market coverage. Our in-house analytical team now provides targeted analysis on alternate weeks to Martijn Bron's expert commentary, combining deep technical analysis with veteran market insights during this volatile period.

What's New:

• Bi-weekly analysis from Vesper's analytical team focusing on:

  • Technical market indicators

  • Derivative pricing trends

  • Weather impact assessment

  • Supply chain disruptions

• Cocoa coverage schedule:

  • Martijn Bron's expert market commentary

  • Alternating with Vesper's analytical team reports

  • CRA Cocoa weather reports published frequently

How to Use It:

1. Access Cocoa Highlights in the Market Analysis section on Vesper or the mobile app

2. Set up notifications to be alerted of any new releases

Launched comprehensive news coverage for meat and poultry markets, powered by custom machine learning models that filter and analyze global news sources to deliver relevant, real-time market intelligence.

Why it Matters: Staying ahead in volatile meat and poultry markets requires more than price data. Our data science team has developed specialized models that scan thousands of global news sources, filtering out noise to deliver only relevant market intelligence—giving you the full context needed.

What's New:

• Live news feed powered by custom ML models that:

  • Track thousands of global news sources

  • Filter for market-moving events

  • Identify relevant industry trends

  • Deliver real-time updates

• Coverage across all major meat and poultry categories

How to Use It:

1. Access the Meat & Poultry tab in your news section

2. Set up notifications for news keywords to keep updated on relevant headlines

Summary: Introducing exclusive Vesper Price Indices (VPIs) for eggs and egg derivatives, covering 16 products across different production systems. These weekly benchmarks are built from actual transaction data from key market participants, supported by expert analysis and AI-powered news coverage.

What's New:

• Weekly VPI benchmarks for:

  • Powder Products: Egg White, Egg Yolk, and Whole Egg powders

  • Liquid Products: Egg White, Egg Yolk, and Whole Egg

  • Shell Eggs

• Coverage across three production systems:

  • Caged

  • Barn

  • Free Range

• Enhanced market coverage:

  • Expert market analysis reports

  • AI-curated global news feed specific to eggs and poultry

  • Weekly price updates based on actual transactions

Why It Matters: The egg derivatives market has historically lacked reliable price benchmarks despite significant price volatility. Our new VPIs fill this gap by providing weekly price references based on actual market transactions, helping you validate quotes and track price trends across different production systems.

How to Use It:

1. Access the price widgets

2. Select your product of interest from 16 new benchmarks

3. View price trends, expert analysis, and relevant news in one spot

4. Use the data to support procurement decisions and supplier negotiations

Related Features: This release is part of our expanded coverage for bakery ingredients, complementing recent additions in:

• Flour cost modeling

• Enhanced wheat and grains price benchmarks

• Fundamental coverage (production, trade routes) for grains, dairy, nuts, and more

These tools provide bakery procurement teams with comprehensive insights across their key ingredients.