Paste prices: Tomato News broadens its scope

30/10/2019

Architecture of Trade

François-Xavier Branthôme

Trade Data Monitor

California,

South America

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Since May 1986, information concerning the prices of pastes on the export market has been made available every month in the pages of the magazine, and since July 2017, a section dedicated to these prices has been featured on our website www.tomatonews.com.

Increasingly, it has become somewhat difficult to regularly and systematically obtain this information (which is often strategic and always sensitive) from the different processing companies. Sourcing such data from industry operators themselves is both an advantage in terms of credibility and reliability of the data, but also an inconvenience insofar as the information collected and published is actually only representative of a certain proportion (be it a big one) of the national industries discussed.

Aware of the interest shown by readers for this topic and of the responsibility of the editorial team to continue providing this essential information on its website, the Tomato News team has decided to extend the scope of its monthly investigation and do away with the constraints and limitations linked to obtaining such commercial data only from the processing companies themselves.

For each of the six countries that play a significant role in international trade (henceforth presented in reverse alphabetical order, i.e. USA, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China and Chile), Tomato News will from now on present the average monthly unit values of exports (in USD/mT) that are available for the latest complete month for each category segment (customs codes of 8 digits or more), representative of the foreign trade operations of these countries. This information will be taken from the trade statistics provided by the various national customs services of the countries concerned, all of which are regularly audited for reliability by information-collecting services at a worldwide level. The "Prices" section will be updated each month, starting with an update on USD/EUR exchange rates.

The purpose of this change is to offer visitors to our website a model that more closely represents reality, and in which objective statistical information based on recent monthly operations replaces the previous "commercial" indicators that are naturally partial with regards to time, space and modalities linked to contracts, conditioning, transport, etc. This new presentation of the values of the different types of tomato pastes exported should avoid modifying or altering the way that the price variations (increases or decreases) of the products concerned are understood. By extending the number of exporting countries from 3 to 6, the editors hope to "cover" almost all of the operations that have a real global scope. Nonetheless, the Tomato News team remains open to any suggestion regarding ways to improve the content of its "Prices" section.

Finally, do not hesitate to express your needs or your questions: we will do our best to provide answers in the best possible timeframe and to supply you with data or schematics that are adapted to your requirements.

USD // EUR exchange rate over the past thirteen months