Job changes in the commodities markets are led this year by agriculture, which makes up 43 percent of all job changes in the industry.
Bloomberg reports that shrinking profits stemming from years of bumper harvest levels is reducing volatility and trading opportunities for major trade clearinghouses, forcing them to tighten their belts. At least 40 senior managers and executives in agriculture left their positions at clearinghouses such as Archer-Daniels-Midland and Louis Dreyfus this year, based on a count collected by Bloomberg. While in many cases the positions have been refilled, it represents an unprecedented changing of the guard.
Specific reasons vary for the changes, but the moves come against a backdrop of tougher trading conditions. Bloomberg says the industry, which for a century has been dominated by ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, has been forced to make wide-ranging changes.
Firms have turned to asset sales, trading in niche markets or even processing meat to generate more cash. And, executives are putting more pressure on traders to deliver profits, and trade experts say that’s becoming harder to do.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.