Vesper  Updates

Cost Models: Turn commodity benchmarks into product pricing

by Vesper Team
New
Food Manufacturing
Retail
Cost Models

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

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Shea Butter Crude VPI Benchmark

by Vesper Team
New
Oils & Fats
Chocolate, Confectionery & Ice Cream
Data
Vesper Price Index (VPI)

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

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Expanded Biodiesel Ticket Coverage Now Live

by Vesper Team
New
Data
Oils & Fats

Summary: Vesper has expanded our biodiesel ticket coverage to include additional markets and vintages. This enhancement provides greater visibility into renewable energy certificate costs used for regulatory compliance across key European markets.

What's New:

  • Daily biodiesel ticket prices now covering three European markets:

    • Netherlands

    • United Kingdom

    • Germany

  • Coverage for both 2024 and 2025 vintages across all markets

  • Multiple certificate types reflecting different feedstock categories

Why It Matters: These certificates represent a critical cost component for regulatory compliance in the transport sector. By tracking prices across different markets and vintages, users can better understand compliance costs, identify market trends, and develop more effective strategies in response to policy shifts and market dynamics.

How to Use It:

  1. Find these prices in the prices widget in your dashboard

  2. Search for specific certificates in the product dropdown

  3. Use Vesper's analytical tools to compare prices across markets

Related Features: This expansion complements our existing biofuels coverage:

  • Regular Biodiesel Market Report with expert analysis

  • Comprehensive price coverage for biofuel products and feedstocks

  • Energy price benchmarks

  • Import/export/tradeflows for key biofuel products

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European Energy Futures

by Vesper Team
New
Energy & Transport
Data

Summary: Vesper has significantly expanded our European electricity futures coverage with the addition of comprehensive EEX data across 15 countries. This enhancement delivers detailed visibility into power markets throughout Europe, covering both base and peak load contracts across monthly, quarterly, and yearly timeframes.

What's New:

  • 86 new electricity futures contracts covering:

    • 15 European countries including Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, and more

    • Base and peak load power contracts

    • Monthly, quarterly, and yearly delivery periods

  • Available across multiple widgets including:

    • Futures widgets (Graph, Table, Historical Settle Graph)

    • Price & Price Comparison widget

Why It Matters: Energy costs represent a significant component of manufacturing expenses. With this expanded coverage, users can monitor electricity futures across their operational footprint, compare price trends between regions, and develop more effective energy procurement strategies based on forward market indicators.

How to Use It:

  1. Access these new products through any of the supported widgets

  2. Search by country name and contract type (e.g., "German Power Base")

  3. Compare electricity futures across different European markets

  4. Track forward curves to inform energy procurement decisions & Market outlook

Related Features: This expansion complements our existing energy market coverage:

  • Natural gas futures across major European hubs

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Extended Forecast Horizon - Dairy, Oils&Fats, Sugar

by Vesper Team
Dairy
Oils & Fats
Sugar & Sweeteners
Forecasting & Outlook

Whats New? Vesper is extending our AI-powered forecasting horizon from 6 to 12 months for select dairy, sugar, and oils commodities with established price histories (5+ years of data). This extended visibility enables procurement teams to move beyond tactical buying decisions to support annual budgeting and strategic planning.

Why it matters? Together with expert human analyst outlooks and comprehensive coverage of S&D/Fundamentals, the forecast powered by AI technology gives a comprehensive outlook on future market movements. The extended 12-month horizon allows users to incorporate forecasting into their decision making on more strategic timeframes.

As always, forecasting accuracy is transparently available on the platform for each individual product, allowing users to assess performance and incorporate it into decision-making.

How to Use It:

  1. Access the forecast widgets directly on your custom dashboards (add through the search tool if needed)

  2. If a product has a 12-Month forecast horizon, it will automatically be visible on your screen

  3. Check forecast performance by choosing the 12-Month option in the accuracy dropdown

More products will be added to the extended range in the course of Q2

Related Features: This extended forecasting complements our existing forward-looking toolkit:

  • Forward pricing up to 16 months ahead in the Forward Pricing widgets

  • Expert analyst outlooks for both short and long-term market perspectives

  • Fundamental market drivers dashboard for tracking supply and demand trends

These combined tools give procurement teams unprecedented visibility into future market movements for more confident strategic planning.

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Country-Specific Sugar Vesper Price Index

by Vesper Team
New
Data
Vesper Price Index (VPI)
Sugar & Sweeteners
Chocolate, Confectionery & Ice Cream

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‘

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"What's New": Personalized Market Updates in One Tap 📱

by Vesper Team
New
Mobile

Summary: New mobile feature delivers personalized market updates - including prices, news, and analyses - in a single, easy-to-scan feed.

What's New:

  • Daily personalized round-up showing:

    • Latest price updates for your products

    • Forward price changes

    • 2 most relevant news articles

    • 2 key market analyses

    • All filtered to your selected interests

Why It Matters: Quick access to your most important market information while on the move, helping you stay informed without searching through different sections.

How to Use It:

  1. Open your Vesper mobile app

  2. Tap "What's New" from Dashboard or Notifications

  3. Scroll through your personalized updates

➡️ Ready to upgrade?Download our mobile app to access these features.

Download Mobile App

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Real-Time Trade Flows: Russia & Ukraine Vessel Lineup

by Vesper Team
New
Oils & Fats
Grains & Feed

Summary: Expanded vessel lineup tracking with insights into Russia and Ukraine through UkrAgroConsult, providing trade insights weeks/months ahead of official customs data.

What's New:

  • Live vessel tracking for:

    • Vegetable oils & oilseeds, and Meals

    • Grains and Pulses

    For Russia and Ukraine exports

Why It Matters: See actual trade movements weeks before official reports, helping you spot supply shifts and market trends as they happen.

How to Use It:

  1. Select the Vessel Lineup Table widget on your dashboard

  2. Select Russia or Ukraine as origin

  3. Filter by product

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Indian Sugar Market Coverage with Sugar Online

by Vesper Team
New
Sugar & Sweeteners
Chocolate, Confectionery & Ice Cream
Market Analysis

Summary: Expanded partnership with Sugar Online brings twice-monthly Indian sugar market reports, offering deep insights into the world's second-largest sugar producer.

What's New:

  • Comprehensive India Sugar Market Report (twice monthly)

  • Coverage includes domestic market dynamics, crop evolution, production forecasts

  • Analysis of consumption trends, trade flows, and policy impacts

Why It Matters: Better understand price movements and market dynamics in India's sugar market, helping you understand the dynamics at play in the worlds second largest sugar producer. Policy changes in export behavior influence the world’s supply of sugar, being an important variable to understand when analyzing the market.

How to Use It:

  1. Access the Market Analysis section

  2. Filter on Sugar in your left bar

  3. Open the latest report or scroll back to earlier publications

Read the Latest report

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