By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
The total contracts traded on Nigerian soybean in the commodity market declined by 86 per cent week-on-week, according to data harvested from Afex Nigeria.
In the data, the volume of contracts traded on the legume commodity dropped to 297 at the close of last week from 2,225 recorded at the preceding week.
Within the period under review, the exchange price of the grain marginally dropped 1.8 per cent to N34,053 per contract from N34,664 per contract of the previous week, but the value of the crop in the open market slightly went up by 0.1 per cent from N37,756 to N37,790.
According to Afex Nigeria, the flooding and damage of the United State’s busiest agricultural port, caused by Hurricane Ida, resulted in limited global supplies as it accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the country’s exports. The harvest season for soybean is fast approaching.
On global supplies, the agribusiness firm said Argentine farmers are expected to harvest 48.8 million tonnes of soybean in the 2021/22 season, which is slightly below the previous estimate of 49 million.
Observing the international markets, the ginger prices dipped by 2.7 per cent as some importers got dried ginger from China at a discount to the actual price.
In the same manner, the value of maize and soybean also fell by 2.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively, while that of paddy rice and cocoa appreciated by 0.2 and 0.7 per cent accordingly as the price of other grains closed flat.
Meanwhile, apart from maize, which recorded an 8.3 per cent rise in its exchange price, other valuable export grains, including paddy rice, sorghum, cocoa, ginger, sesame, and cashew all closed flat at the end of the trading week, but recorded varying price movement in the open market.
The value of paddy rice in the open market dropped week-on-week from N21,878 to N21,287 per contract, representing a 2.7 per cent decline, while sorghum went up by 4.3 per cent to N25,169 from N24,138.
Similarly, the price of the country’s leading agricultural export, cocoa, increased in the market by 0.6 per cent from N99,013 to N99,563, while sesame also went up by 2.8 per cent as it traded at N55,388 from N53,512/contract.
However, ginger’s price dropped 2.8 per cent to N89,823 as that of cashew stood flat at N47,417/contract.
For the second straight week, the total trades recorded at the exchange last week went down by 26 per cent to 1,946 contracts.
The indices of the markets reflected a muted performance week-on-week from the Afex commodity Index (ACI) and its Export Index (AEI), while the Standard & Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (S&P GSCI) Agriculture indices declined by 0.8 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively.
Modupe Gbadeyanka