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 launched Advanced Cost Model Collaboration & Forecasting, transforming how procurement teams build, share, and predict product costs. These features eliminate silos between team members and bring AI-powered forecasting directly into your cost models, enabling real-time collaboration on forward-looking procurement strategies.

What's New:

• Cost Model Forecasting: View your total product costs up to 12 months ahead (depending on forecast availability). Toggle between historical and forecasted values with full accuracy calculations, detailed forecast tables showing price movements per ingredient, and weighted accuracy scores.

• Cost Model Sharing: Share any cost model across your organization with granular access controls. Grant view-only permissions for stakeholder reviews or edit access for joint development, with all shared models appearing in a dedicated library.

• Cost Model Collaboration: Work collaboratively on shared models with real-time updates visible to all collaborators. Receive notifications when colleagues share models or make edits, ensuring alignment on the latest cost structures.

Why It Matters: Cost models trapped in individual spreadsheets create bottlenecks and duplicate work. Meanwhile, static historical data leaves teams reactive rather than proactive. This update enables procurement teams to collaborate on living cost models that look forward, not only backward, turning isolated analysis into coordinated teamwork with visibility into future cost drivers.

How to Use It:

1. Access forecasting by clicking the toggle in any cost model widget to switch between historical and forecast views

2. Share models by selecting "Edit" in the cost model widget, then using the share option under "Access"

3. Set permissions as either "Can view" for stakeholder visibility or "Can edit" for collaborative development

4. Find shared models in the dedicated section of your cost model dropdown, marked with company models

5. Monitor changes through the Notifications banner for updates on shared models

How to access? These features are live for all Vesper users. Contact your customer success manager at [email protected] for training on maximizing collaboration workflows.

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 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

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

Expanded sugar price coverage with new country-specific Vesper Price Indices for Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Spain, complementing our regional EU benchmarks. All benchmarks are updated weekly and remain DAP (Delivered at Place) derived from actual market participants aiding price discovery.

Why it Matters: National sugar markets have distinct dynamics driven by local production, trade flows, and supply-demand factors. While regional benchmarks provide essential context, country-level visibility enables more precise procurement strategies, especially in deficit markets like Spain that rely heavily on imports.

What's New:

• Weekly white sugar benchmarks (ICUMSA 45) for:

  • Germany

  • Netherlands

  • Poland

  • Spain

• Delivery basis: DAP (Delivered at Place)

• Weekly updates every Wednesday

How to Use It:

1. Access Sugar benchmarks in the Prices widgets by searching for ‘white sugar‘

NewNuts & SeedsProduction Data

Summary: Monthly production data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) for cashews and peanuts, providing official Brazilian production volumes and trends.

What's New:

• Monthly cashew production data (in shell)

• Monthly peanut production volumes (combined 1st and 2nd harvests)

• Data presented in metric tons

• Direct integration with IBGE statistics

• Monthly update frequency

Why It Matters: Brazil's position as a major nuts producer means their production volumes directly impact global supply and prices. This data helps you anticipate market movements and optimize procurement timing based on production cycles.

How to Use It:

1. Access the Production widgets in your dashboard

2. Use the search function to find "cashew" or "peanut" data

3. Select Brazilian production data from the results

Related Features: This release complements our recent expansion of nuts and seeds price data, where we've added more historical data points across all pricing widgets to give you a deeper view of long-term market trends.

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