AgriCensus

About AgriCensus

AgriCensus is a London-headquartered price reporting agency for the global agricultural commodity markets, publishing market-moving news and benchmark price assessments for the bulk agriculture trade. Founded in 2017, it quickly established itself with 200 price assessments across the grain, oilseed and biofuel industries, supplemented by high-quality market news and intelligence. In March 2020 it was acquired by Euromoney Institutional Investor and integrated into the Fastmarkets price reporting business, and its operations now form the core of Fastmarkets Agriculture. It publishes from agricensus.com from its London base at 20 St Thomas Street.

Founding in 2017

AgriCensus was founded in 2017 as a price reporting agency specialising in the bulk agriculture markets. The founders identified a gap in agricultural price reporting: while energy and metals had long been served by established price reporting agencies, agriculture — despite the globalisation of trade flows and rising commodity price volatility — lacked an independent agency providing the benchmark assessments the physical trade increasingly needed.

The new agency set out to provide market-moving news and benchmark prices for the grain, oilseed and biofuel industries, building a suite of price assessments from scratch and winning the trust of traders, millers, crushers and biofuel producers who needed objective reference prices for their physical and financial transactions.

The price assessments

AgriCensus quickly established itself in the marketplace through its 200 price assessments on the grain, oilseed and biofuel industries. The assessments provide the daily reference prices the agricultural trade uses to value physical inventories, negotiate spot and term contracts, mark positions to market and settle financial derivatives linked to physical commodity values.

The methodology of a price reporting agency is its most important asset: assessments must reflect repeatable, transparent market value, assessed from verified deals, bids, offers and market intelligence. AgriCensus built its reputation on the rigour of its assessments and the quality of the market news and intelligence that accompanied them.

Acquisition by Euromoney

On 9 March 2020, Euromoney Institutional Investor, the international information services provider, announced the acquisition of 100 per cent of Census Commodity Data, operating primarily through its AgriCensus brand. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition expanded Euromoney's Fastmarkets price reporting business into the agriculture market, where the globalisation of trade flows and commodity price volatility was increasing the market's dependency on pricing and market news.

The deal complemented Fastmarkets' existing Global Grain business, a series of leading annual international events that had been connecting the grain and oilseed community for 14 years. Euromoney said Fastmarkets' reputation as a trusted source for pricing, news, analytics and events, its platform and product development, and its global operation would strengthen what was still an early-stage, high-growth business.

Fastmarkets Agriculture

AgriCensus's operations were combined with EnergyCensus and The Jacobsen to form Fastmarkets Agriculture, giving customers coverage across the agricultural commodity complex. Fastmarkets Agriculture provides market-reflective price data, news and market intelligence for customers navigating volatile markets, arguing that it is no longer possible to stay on top of the market through global futures contracts or benchmarks alone.

The combined business offers independent price data in regional markets across the globe, daily prices usable for the valuation of physical inventories, mark-to-market valuations of financial instruments and associated negotiations, and curated key news in a daily newsletter. Daily price assessments are usable as references for negotiations, physical spot and term contracts, and the settlement of financial derivatives on the physical market, with forward values for loading or delivery up to nine months ahead.

The PRA model in agriculture

As a price reporting agency, AgriCensus operates in one of the most demanding niches in financial information. PRAs sit at the centre of commodity markets: their assessments are embedded in physical contracts, used by risk managers to value exposures, referenced by exchanges and clearing houses, and scrutinised by regulators. Independence, methodological transparency and robust governance are the foundations of the business.

Fastmarkets, the industry-leading PRA serving the metals, mining and forest products markets, brought to AgriCensus the compliance culture, benchmark-administration expertise and global footprint of an established agency — assets directly applicable to building agriculture's benchmarks to the same standard.

Serving the agricultural trade

AgriCensus's customers span the bulk agriculture value chain: the trading houses that move grain and oilseeds around the world, the millers and crushers that process them, the biofuel producers whose margins depend on feedstock prices, and the financial institutions that finance and hedge the trade. For all of them, reliable daily price signals are a commercial necessity.

The agency's London headquarters at 20 St Thomas Street places it in the heart of the world's commodity trading community, close to the trading houses, brokers and exchanges that make London a global centre for agricultural commodity markets alongside its historic strengths in metals and energy.

Data delivery

Fastmarkets Agriculture delivers its price data and intelligence through multiple channels: the daily newsletter bringing curated key news to subscribers, an online platform with access to the analysts immersed in the different regional markets, and data feeds that allow customers to feed price data directly into Excel or receive it via API.

The multi-channel delivery reflects how commodity professionals work: traders need prices in their spreadsheets and risk systems, analysts need the narrative behind the numbers, and procurement teams need alerts when the markets relevant to them move. The agency serves all three workflows from the same underlying assessments.

AgriCensus today

Today the AgriCensus brand operates within Fastmarkets Agriculture, the agricultural price reporting arm of the Fastmarkets business. From a 2017 start-up with 200 assessments to part of one of the world's leading price reporting agencies, its trajectory reflects the professionalisation of agricultural commodity markets: as trade flows globalised and volatility increased, the market demanded the same independent, rigorous price reporting that energy and metals had long enjoyed.

In an era when severe weather, geopolitical tensions, domestic policies, surging biofuel demand, food insecurity concerns and changing trade flows make volatility the constant of agricultural markets, the price reporting agency founded in London in 2017 has become part of the market's essential infrastructure.

Why agriculture needed a price reporting agency

AgriCensus was founded on a structural observation: the globalisation of trade flows and rising commodity price volatility were increasing the agricultural market's dependency on pricing and market news, yet agriculture lacked the independent price reporting agencies that energy and metals had long enjoyed. As Fastmarkets Agriculture puts it, it is no longer possible to stay on top of the market through global futures contracts or benchmarks alone — the market is now driven by decentralised trade and price data, requiring an objective, global, immersed entity to deliver decision-quality signals.

The forces making volatility the constant of agricultural markets are well documented: severe weather, geopolitical tensions, domestic policies, surging biofuel demand, concerns over food insecurity and changing trade flows all buffet the day-to-day reality of the grain, oilseed and biofuel trades. In that environment, the 200 independent assessments AgriCensus built — and the market news and intelligence surrounding them — became essential infrastructure for traders, processors and end-users who must price risk every day. Competitors such as AgFlow contest the space, while established agencies such as Argus, with more than 50 years of commodity market reporting, underline how central independent price reporting has become to every commodity complex.