Vesper now includes 286 new price series from 13 USDA MARS reports, one of the most widely referenced public pricing sources in US agricultural markets. This is our largest single USDA expansion to date.

What's New:

• Vegetables & Pulses: 107 new price series including potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, squash, black beans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpeas, and yellow peas

• Fruits: 80 new price series covering apples (Gala, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Cosmic Crisp and more), oranges, grapes, strawberries, peaches, pears, bananas, kiwi, and watermelon, including organic variants

• Meat & Poultry: 39 new price series for beef primal cuts (ribeye, tenderloin, strip loin, chuck, round), lamb (rack, leg, shoulder), turkey (whole, breast, drumsticks, wings), hog, and cattle live/dressed weight prices

• Food Ingredients: 29 new price series for eggs (caged and free-range across multiple sizes and regions) and ethanol

• Grains & Feed: 14 new price series for alfalfa, corn (food and feed grade), soybean, DDGS, corn gluten, cottonseed, canola meal, and blood meal

• Oils & Fats: 8 new price series including choice white grease and animal fat derivatives

• Herbs & Spices: 5 new price series for jalapeño, serrano, poblano, anaheim chili peppers, and garlic

• Chemicals: 3 new price series

• Sugar: 1 new price series

See the complete product list for all 286 series.

Why It Matters:

USDA MARS reports are among the most commonly referenced pricing benchmarks in US agricultural markets. These 286 series bring that coverage directly into Vesper, so you can track US prices for fresh produce, proteins, grains, feed ingredients, and eggs alongside your existing European and global series, all in one place.

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: Search for specific products (e.g., "beef ribeye" or "apples Honeycrisp") to bookmark USDA MARS prices alongside your existing series

• Price Comparison: Compare USDA US prices with European or global equivalents for with different prodcut names

• Cost Models: Add USDA ingredient prices to your cost models for a more complete picture of US-sourced product costs

How to access?

Add to new or existing dashboards using the search function, or contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected] for any questions.

Vesper now covers 121 monthly packaging price series across EU and UK markets, including 76 products created for this expansion. Coverage spans paper, plastics, glass, and metals.

What's new:

• 121 monthly packaging price series, now live
• 76 newly created packaging products
• Materials covered: paper and cardboard (corrugated, cartonboard, kraft), plastics (PET, HDPE, flexible films), glass (bottles, containers), metals (tinplate, aluminium)
• Geographic scope: EU and UK markets

Why this matters:

Packaging is one of the largest indirect cost categories for food manufacturers. Price swings in paperboard or PET can move margins just as much as ingredient costs. With independent benchmarks for packaging materials, you can track costs over time and verify supplier proposals against market data.

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: search by packaging material, product type, or market
• Price Comparison: compare packaging prices across materials or regions
• Cost Models: add packaging cost lines alongside ingredient costs in a single model

How to access?

Add to new or existing dashboards using the search function, or contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected].

Vesper has partnered with Sosland Publishing to bring 114 weekly spot price series into the platform. Sosland is a leading US trade publisher covering food ingredient markets.

What's new:

• 114 weekly spot price series from Sosland, now live
• Coverage spans four commodity categories: Oils & Fats, Grains & Feed, Sugar, and Cocoa
• All series are weekly frequency, reflecting US spot market conditions
• A second batch covering forward cash prices and basis prices is planned for Q2 2026

Why this matters:

Sosland prices are widely referenced by buyers and sellers in North American ingredient trade. Having them in Vesper means you can compare US spot prices directly against European benchmarks in a single view. For categories like cocoa, oils, and grains where US and EU prices regularly diverge, that cross-regional visibility matters in negotiations.

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: search Sosland series by commodity or keyword
• Price Comparison: set up US vs EU price comparisons for the same commodity
• Cost Models: use Sosland weekly prices as inputs alongside existing European series

How to access?

Add to new or existing dashboards using the search function, or contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected].

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 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

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

Summary: Cocoa production data from 8 major producing countries and import/export data for key products and derivatives added to bring more transparency to the cocoa supply chain amidst record volatility.

What's New:

• Production volumes from:

  • West Africa: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria

  • Latin America: Brazil, Ecuador

  • Asia Pacific: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea

• Global trade flow data for:

  • Cocoa beans

  • Cocoa powder, butter, and mass

  • Chocolate products

Why It Matters: Production volumes from major origins like Ivory Coast and Ghana often indicate future price movements. Combined with trade flow data, you can better anticipate market shifts and understand the influence of fundamental drivers on market dynamics.

How to Use It:

1. Find production data in your Production widget

2. Access trade flows through the Import/Export widgets (Pro tip: % Change and YTD figures can be found in dropdown)

3. Filter by country or product as needed

Don't have access to Cocoa yet?Contact the Vesper Team

Summary: New Cocoa Ratios Table tracks daily cocoa bean prices, regional premiums, and butter/powder ratios, helping you understand product value correlations.

What's New:

• Daily updated view of:

  • Cocoa bean prices by origin

  • Butter and powder ratios

  • Regional premiums

  • ICE futures prices

• Updates after ICE EU market close

Why It Matters: Cocoa butter and powder prices move independently based on market demand. This table helps you track these movements and their impact on product costs, critical for sourcing decisions.

How to Use It:

1. Navigate to the Cocoa section

2. Open the Ratios Table widget

3. Compare ratios across products and regions

Don’t have access yet?Reach out to the Vesper Team