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.

Price forecasts now display weekly data points instead of monthly. The same 12-month coverage now gives you 52 weekly forecasts; 6-month coverage gives you 26 weekly forecasts.

What it does: Shows forecast at weekly intervals rather than monthly What you can do: Track expected price movements week-to-week and time purchases more precisely Why it matters: Spot trends between monthly intervals and answer the tactical question: commit this week or wait? Especially valuable when markets are volatile.

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 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

Enhanced S&D Map visualization now provides Year-to-Date (YTD) comparisons across regions, enabling instant visual insights into global production, import/export, and stock trends and regional shifts.

Why it Matters:"If I were interested to see where growth in EU milk production is happening, this would really quickly show me that it is not happening in Ireland, Netherlands or France. It's great for presentations, as not having to click through all countries at the same time makes it ideal for regions or groups of countries."

Jasper Endlich, Dairy Market Analyst

How to Use It:

1. Find the World Map Widget in the S&D category

2. Select your metric and timeframe of interest

3. Compare countries and spot regional trends through color coding

4. Export directly into presentations or add to your custom dashboards
   

We've launched two powerful features to help you navigate the platform more efficiently: Dashboard Search and Vesbot. Each serves a distinct purpose to help you find exactly what you need, when you need it.

What's New

Dashboard Search: Find and Act

Two simple ways to discover available data:

1. Direct product search

   • Search for specific products (e.g., "WPI", "Sugar", "Cocoa")

   • See all available data types for that product

   • Add relevant data directly to your dashboards

2. Category navigation

   • Browse through product categories

   • Select product within the category

   • Explore available data types

Both paths help you discover and organize the data you need in your dashboards.

Vesbot: Ask and Learn

• Get instant answers about platform features

• Learn how to use specific platform capabilities

• Access platform support 24/7

• Available through the help icon in the bottom right corner

Why It Matters

Finding the right data and understanding how to use it are crucial for making timely decisions. Dashboard Search helps you quickly locate and organize market data, while Vesbot ensures you can instantly learn how to use platform features effectively.

When To Use Which?

How to Use It

Dashboard Search

1. Click the search bar above your workspaces

2. Enter what you're looking for (e.g., "WPI prices")

3. Add Country/region

4. Add relevant data directly to your dashboards or create a new one

Vesbot

1. Click the help icon in the bottom right corner

2. Type your question (e.g., "How do I compare prices between regions?")

3. Get immediate answers and guidance

4. Follow up with additional questions if needed

5. Left with questions? Our Support team is still available to help, just ask Vesbot to connect you.

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