It is very important to understand that stock market and real estate market were the heroes of investment in the last seventy years. Most investors try to self manage their funds and lose because they scared when the market drops and after they exist the market takes off. Investing in commodities with proper hedge in place can create much more return than stocks, bond, and real estate can ever generate. Cotton is in a new bull market. It is very important to understand that stock market...

What drives market from now on should be the crop size and exports. We might be experiencing a volatile market for the rest of the summer. Market then met some pressure from bearish options strategies and slipped back to trade around 6410 to 6440 in the second half the session. This morning s US export report was mixed but credited as bullish and supported the rise of today s market prices. Farmers to the north are beginning to fear a very low mic cotton crop, which will be the case if...

Cotton prices are down, while the high demand for corn has pushed prices to $4 per bushel, about double last year's price. Usually they plant most of that acreage in cotton. Statistics released by the state June 29 indicate that farmers have found the additional corn acreage by planting less cotton. A concern over the shifting of acreage to corn and the increased demand of the ethanol industry is that rising corn prices will push up the price of just about every other food item. Because...

The Bush administration proposes boosting federal spending on fruits and vegetables and help in marketing the crops overseas. This has been an issue with apple growers, who make no profit on juice apples and get little profit from processing apples since China began exporting apples to the United States. Crop disaster funding, such as aid the apple growers in Henderson County will receive this year because of the Easter freeze, is not part of subsidy payments. Of concern are the pesticides...

The switch to Democratic control of Congress could lead to a bill this year that cuts back on the subsidies to agribusiness in favor of assisting vegetable and fruit growers. EVERY FIVE years Congress passes a farm bill that makes a gesture or two toward land conservation -- but mainly enriches large corporate producers of corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, and cotton. Growers of those commodity crops have received almost $70 billion in taxpayer subsidies in the past five years. Fruit and...

Western states provide huge subsidies for their cotton producers, thereby affecting exports from West Africa. The poor growth rate was blamed to a large degree on falling agricultural revenues, especially for cotton, which is a major cash crop in the region. Meanwhile Western subsidies for cotton growers and chemical producers hit local exports badly. The BCEAO in a new report warned that the current oil shock had also driven up the prices of oil exports except for the region's sole...