You can now compare your cost models directly against actual prices and other cost models in the Price Comparison widget.

What's new

• Cost models now appear as selectable series in the Price Comparison widget

• Select cost models from the product dropdown, labeled with their cost model name

• View cost model historical data alongside multiple other cost models, price series, or any combination of both

• Same visualization and interaction as product prices (line charts, tooltips, trends)

• Note: Notes cannot be added to cost models

Why this matters

For finished goods, this bridges cost modeling and price analysis:

• Compare different recipe options to find the most cost-effective formulation

• Validate actual paid prices against theoretical cost models to spot inefficiencies

• Track variance trends over time to identify negotiation opportunities

For commodity and ingredient buyers, this opens up new ways to analyze contract structures:

• Build indices for weighted baskets and compare against other indices or your own prices

• Model multiplier or fixed cost-plus structures on top of any benchmark

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 expanded its proprietary specialty dairy protein coverage with two new Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmarks: WPC80 Regular US and WPC80 Regular EU. Published every Wednesday, these benchmarks provide independent, region-specific price visibility, allowing procurement teams to track actual market spreads rather than relying on fixed premium assumptions or generic proxies.

What's New:

• Weekly Regional Benchmarks: Prices for WPC80 Regular in the US and EU, published every Wednesday.

• Verified Market Input: Prices derived from verified active market participants—both buyers and sellers—so you see where trade is actually getting done.

• Deep Specialty Coverage: Strengthens Vesper’s unique position in specialty proteins, joining our existing benchmarks for WPC80 Instant, MPCs, WPI, Caseinates, and other niche protein products.

Why It Matters:

Relying on "80 Instant" for "Regular" WPC80 can hide the actual cost. These new Vesper benchmarks provide the independent reference needed to verify quotes against actual market prices. By establishing a shared view of the market, buyers and sellers can align on price faster, ensuring fair trade and reducing the time spent negotiating over data sources.

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: Bookmark the US and EU prices for one-click access to the latest Wednesday publication.

• Price Comparison: Compare the new WPC80 Regular prices to the Instant variant and use the Spread function to instantly visualize correlations, spot patterns, and track how the price gap evolves over time.

• Cost Models: Select these new benchmarks as ingredients in your Cost Models to see product costs with WPC80 Regular as an ingredient.

How to access?

These benchmarks are live for all Vesper users with access to the Dairy module. Contact your customer success manager at [email protected] for help integrating these new indices into your dashboard.

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 strengthened its dairy portfolio with a new weekly Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmark for Cheddar Curd (CIF Southeast Asia). This proprietary benchmark fills a critical gap in regional cheese trade visibility, especially for Oceania-origin products moving into key Asian markets.

What's New:

• Exclusive weekly VPI price benchmark for Cheddar Curd with CIF Southeast Asia delivery basis

• First reliable price reference in a region lacking formal cheese futures markets

• Full integration with existing dairy dashboards and pricing tools

Why It Matters: With no futures market for cheese in the APAC, market participants have struggled to benchmark pricing or implement effective hedging strategies. This exclusive VPI benchmark provides essential price transparency in a market where Oceania exports a significant share of its cheddar production to Asian buyers. By introducing this reference point, we're responding to the need for reliable pricing data in markets lacking formal pricing infrastructure.

How to Use It:

1. Find the new Cheddar Curd (CIF SEA) benchmark in the pricing widgets

2. Add it to price widgets to analyze spread between origin and destination markets

3. Track weekly updates to identify emerging trends in regional dairy trade flows

Related Features: This benchmark complements Vesper's existing offerings:

• Global and regional cheese price benchmarks

• Import/export widgets mapping supply and demand in trade flows

• Price spread tool for cross-regional analysis

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

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.

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.