Course 15 of 20 · Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy

Sugar & Cocoa Specialisation

Stage D, Complex specialisation and optionality. Level 7 of 10.

The soft commodity complexes: raw and white sugar with the whites premium, ethanol parity in cane, and cocoa origin differentials, grinding and quality arbitration.

121 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 03, Course 08, Course 11

Enrol or enquire See the 121 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 121 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 Two Soft Complexes on One Desk Ch 1-10
  1. Sugar and Cocoa Are Not One Market
  2. The Sugar Chain From Cane and Beet to a Refined Bag
  3. The Cocoa Chain From Pod to Butter, Powder and Chocolate
  4. Why a Cane Mill Chooses Its Split and a Cocoa Press Cannot
  5. The Four Decisions Priced in This Material
  6. The Crop Balance, the Export Contract and the Hedge Taken as Held
  7. Where Cane's Fuel Switch Stops and the Oil Complex Begins
  8. The Cut Test Here, the Shortfall Claim in Course Nine
  9. One Season, One Parcel, One Currency as a Starting Simplification
  10. Which Seat Each Soft Commodity Chapter Speaks From
M1 The Raw Sugar Parcel Ch 11-21
  1. Sucrose in Cane and Sucrose in Beet
  2. Polarisation as the Unit a Raw Sugar Invoice Prices
  3. Very High Polarisation Sugar and the Brazilian Export Stream
  4. What a Refinery Reads on a Raw Sugar Analysis Beyond Polarisation
  5. A Bulk Raw Sugar Cargo and the Terms It Loads On
  6. White Sugar Specifications and the Colour Grades a Buyer Names
  7. Where Each Sugar Grade Finds Its Buyer
  8. The Two Sugar Terminal Markets a Quote Hangs From
  9. Converting Cents a Pound Into Dollars a Tonne Without Losing the Argument
  10. The Domestic Sugar Contract Nobody Exports Into
  11. Tendering a Parcel Against the Raws Contract
M2 Refining and the Whites Premium Ch 22-33
  1. What a Cane Refinery Does to a Raw Sugar Crystal
  2. Refining Yield and the Sugar That Does Not Arrive
  3. The Whites Premium Defined as a Spread, Not a Margin
  4. Building the Whites Premium From Two Boards, Step by Step
  5. The Refiner's Cost Stack Set Against the Premium
  6. When the Whites Premium Will Not Pay the Melt
  7. What a Refiner Cannot Lay Off on Two Boards
  8. Beet Sugar Arrives as White and Changes the Premium
  9. The Toll Refiner and the Merchant Refiner
  10. A Destination Refinery's Raw Sugar Buying Window
  11. The Part of the Whites Premium That Is Distance
  12. Reading the Whites Premium Across Shipment Months
M3 The Cane Mill's Swing Between Sugar and Alcohol Ch 34-46
  1. Total Recoverable Sugar as the Cane Mill's Raw Material
  2. One Tonne of Cane, Two Finished Products
  3. Hydrous and Anhydrous Alcohol as Two Different Sales
  4. Ethanol Parity Defined as a Sugar-Equivalent Price
  5. Working an Ethanol Parity Comparison Without Inventing a Price
  6. The Sugar Side of Parity Must Be a Mill Gate Netback
  7. Where the Swing Is Real and Where It Is Not
  8. The Pump Price Sitting Behind Ethanol Parity
  9. Carbon Credits in the Mill's Alcohol Column
  10. Valuing the Swing Across a Season of Price Pairs
  11. The Soft Floor the Distillery Puts Under Sugar
  12. The Upside Restraint Runs Through Crystallisers, Not the Distillery
  13. A Mill That Cannot Swing and a Mill That Can
M4 Sugar Policy, Market by Market Ch 47-56
  1. Why a World Sugar Price Is a Residual
  2. India's Cane Price and Export Quota Machinery
  3. Thailand's Cane and Sugar Board and Its Revenue Sharing
  4. Brazil Has No Sugar Quota and Plenty of Sugar Policy
  5. The European Union After Sugar Production Quotas
  6. The United States Sugar Programme and Its Quota Allocations
  7. An Import Licence as a Price in Its Own Right
  8. Administered Cane Prices and the Supply Response Argument
  9. Reading a Sugar Policy Change Into a Position
  10. The Sugar Policy Watch List and What Stays Off It
M5 The Cocoa Bean and the Institutions That Sell It Ch 57-67
  1. The Pod, the Bean and the Fermentation That Makes Flavour
  2. Main Crop and Mid Crop in the West African Calendar
  3. Bean Count and What It Tells a Grinder
  4. The Cut Test as Cocoa's Grading Instrument
  5. Fat Content and Free Fatty Acids in a Bean Parcel
  6. Shell, Moisture and the Weight a Grinder Pays For
  7. Fine or Flavour Cocoa and the Bulk Majority
  8. Ghana's Cocoa Board and the Single Channel Purchase
  9. Cote d'Ivoire's Council and Its Forward Auction
  10. Indonesia, Ecuador, Nigeria and Cameroon as Different Sellers
  11. The Living Income Differential and the Traceability Rules Arriving With It
M6 Cocoa Country Differentials Ch 68-79
  1. A Cocoa Offer Is a Terminal Price Plus a Country Differential
  2. Why Ghana and Ivorian Differentials Move Apart
  3. The Tonnage a Board Has Already Sold Forward
  4. Bean Quality Priced Inside a Country Differential
  5. An Origin Differential Against a Warehouse Differential
  6. The Afloat Parcel and the Parcel in Store
  7. Graded Cocoa in a Licensed Warehouse as an Alternative Home
  8. A Fixed Addition Beside a Variable Differential
  9. The Grinder's Forward Cover and the Differential It Pays
  10. Main Crop Arrivals and the Shape of a Season's Differential
  11. Sizing a Cocoa Differential Exposure in Tonnes
  12. Whether a Cocoa Country Differential Returns to a Level
M7 The Grind: Butter, Powder and the Combined Ratio Ch 80-91
  1. What a Grinder Does to a Cocoa Bean
  2. Pressing Liquor Into Butter and Cake
  3. Alkalised Powder and the Colour a Customer Specifies
  4. Butter and Powder Quoted as Ratios to the Terminal Price
  5. The Combined Ratio as the Grinder's Margin Statement
  6. Working a Grinding Margin Without Inventing a Yield
  7. Why Butter and Powder Demand Do Not Arrive Together
  8. The Surplus Half a Press Cannot Avoid
  9. Cocoa Butter Equivalents and the Fat That Competes
  10. Press Capacity Moving to Origin
  11. The Grinding Statistics a Cocoa Desk Watches
  12. Whether a Grind Number Signals Demand
M8 Cocoa's Own Quality Regime Ch 92-100
  1. Cocoa's Two Trade Rule Books and the Terms They Supply
  2. The Allowance Scale a Cocoa Contract Carries
  3. Sampling a Cocoa Lot for a Cut Test
  4. Writing Down a Cut Test So It Can Be Checked
  5. When the Beans Pass and the Butter Fails
  6. A Destructive Test and the Portion Kept for a Re-Test
  7. An Origin Grading Certificate Against a Destination Cut Test
  8. Infestation, Smoke Taint and the Defect That Appears in Store
  9. The Cocoa Parcel Nobody Will Grind
M9 Arguments Neither Complex Has Settled Ch 101-110
  1. Whether the Whites Premium Measures Refining Cost or Scarcity
  2. Who Supplies the Marginal Tonne of Sugar
  3. Whether Removing Beet Quotas Narrowed the Premium for Good
  4. Sweetener Substitution and the Ceiling It Puts on Sugar Demand
  5. Whether an Institutional Forward Sale Steadies a Differential
  6. Whether Grinding Will Stay at Origin
  7. Whether Traceability Rules Will Split Cocoa Into Two Markets
  8. Whether Butter and Powder Values Can Keep Diverging
  9. The Claim That Sugar Has No Fundamental but Policy
  10. A Season's View Written Down Before the Harvest Arrives
M10 Two Worked Books and the Honest Limits Ch 111-121
  1. A Centre-South Mill's Tonnage Worked Three Ways, Part One: the Routes
  2. A Centre-South Mill's Tonnage Worked Three Ways, Part Two: the Netbacks
  3. A Centre-South Mill's Tonnage Worked Three Ways, Part Three: the Defence
  4. An Ivorian Bean Parcel Worked Two Ways, Part One: the Choice
  5. An Ivorian Bean Parcel Worked Two Ways, Part Two: the Comparison
  6. An Ivorian Bean Parcel Worked Two Ways, Part Three: the Cut Test
  7. One Desk Holding Sugar and Cocoa at Once
  8. A Refining Margin Lost With Both Legs Covered
  9. What a Polarisation Reading and a Cut Test Cannot Tell You
  10. What Parity and Ratio Arithmetic Cannot Settle
  11. Where the Whites Premium and the Combined Ratio Go Next

The brochure gives each of these 121 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 15 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway