Where the math is defensible.
Long-form research on live enterprise decisions. Publication is selective. Every number traces to a named source. No takes without evidence.
Cocoa 2024 to 2026: West African Collapse, Price Shock, and the EUDR Reset
ICE cocoa futures printed an all time high above USD 12,500 per tonne in April 2024, then settled into a USD 7,000 to 9,000 range through Q1 2026. Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, together roughly 60 percent of world supply, are still under disease, climate, and galamsey stress, and the chocolate platform is repricing through the entire value chain.
World cocoa output fell to roughly 4.4 million tonnes in 2023 to 2024 from a 5.0 million tonne plateau, with Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana driving more than 80 percent of the shortfall. Black pod disease, cocoa swollen shoot virus disease, El Nino dryness, and the rapid encroachment of artisanal gold mining (galamsey) onto Ghanaian cocoa land c...
The Coffee Market Crisis 2024 to 2026: Arabica at Fifty Year Highs and the Reordering of Origin Risk
Brazilian arabica drought, Vietnamese robusta stress, and ICE futures at 4.40 dollars per pound have rewritten the cost stack for every roaster, retailer, and origin trader. The next 18 months separate the operators who repriced from those who absorbed.
Between mid 2024 and the first quarter of 2026, the global coffee complex experienced its most severe price dislocation since the 1977 frost shock. ICE arabica futures cleared 4.40 dollars per pound in late 2024, a fifty year nominal high, while London robusta traded near 4,800 dollars per tonne and the ICO Composite Indicator briefly hel...
Copper and the Electrification Supercycle: Why 2026 Breaks the Bear Case
Codelco below 1.4 million tonnes, Cobre Panama still cold, AI grid copper at 3 to 4 kg per kW, and Chinese smelter TC/RC at zero. The supply side is losing its argument.
The copper market enters 2026 with a supply book structurally short of the demand it has signed up to serve. Codelco is guiding sub 1.4 million tonnes of mined output, the lowest since 1998, while Freeport's Grasberg is past peak grade, BHP's Escondida is grinding through head grade decay, and Glencore's Collahuasi expansion remains stall...
The Lithium Price Collapse: Marginal Cost, Demand Drift, and the 2027 Floor
Lithium carbonate fell 87 percent from the November 2022 peak and has spent five quarters bouncing along the Australian spodumene cost cliff. The recovery path now depends on Chinese converter discipline, BEV demand growth that is decelerating in every major region, and a direct lithium extraction pipeline that has slipped two years.
Battery grade lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) priced on a CIF Asia basis collapsed from 84,000 dollars per tonne in November 2022 to 10,500 dollars in early 2024, then traded in a 10,000 to 13,000 dollar band through Q1 2026. The price is now sitting on the marginal cost of Chinese converter feedstock processed from Australian spodumen...
Peru Mining Under Boluarte: Political Risk Through the 2026 Election Cycle
President Dina Boluarte enters her last full year of office with single digit approval, a fragmented Congress, and a copper sector that the state cannot afford to disturb. The April 2026 first round and June 2026 runoff will reset the rules under which Las Bambas, Quellaveco, and the Tia Maria pipeline operate.
Peru is the world's second largest copper producer at roughly 2.6 million tonnes per year, and its political settlement is the variable that decides whether the next administration can hold the line. President Dina Boluarte governs with approval near 5 percent, a Congress that has rejected three constitutional vacancia motions, and a memo...