Inside the global spice trade's slow reshuffling
A quiet reorganisation is underway across the world's oldest food supply chains.
The global spice trade — one of the oldest continuous food supply chains — is undergoing a quiet reorganisation. Rising demand for traceability from European and North American importers is pushing origin countries to formalise networks that have long operated informally.
The Food Observatory Brief
Weekly briefing on food systems, climate, agriculture and policy — straight to your inbox.
More on Markets
Olive Oil, Orange Juice and the New Climate Price Shock
Crops concentrated in one or two climate-exposed regions now follow a boom and bust pattern, with heat, drought and disease compounding the swings. This piece looks at olive oil, orange juice and vanilla, explains why prices fall back but not to old levels, and asks who carries the risk when hedging is thin.
Fertilizer Prices Are the Hidden Driver of Food Inflation
Fertilizer is made from natural gas and from potash and phosphate controlled by a handful of exporters, so its price follows energy and trade policy more than crop demand. This piece argues that fertilizer affordability, not only grain prices, sets farmers' planting decisions and next season's food prices, and looks at what India, Africa and efficiency measures change.
GLP-1 Drugs Are Starting to Change What the Food Industry Sells
Semaglutide and tirzepatide are changing grocery baskets, restaurant portions and product launches in the United States. This piece argues that the food industry is facing its first pharmacological shift in appetite, traces the consequences for protein, fibre, portion size and the commodities behind them, and sets out why it will not become a universal change.