Have a nice weekend, investors. 😊

What about you and commodities, anyone interested in them? I know it's tricky for long term investments as the commodity itself can often only be bought from a broker as a CFD. So if you have an interest in a particular commodity, you need to look for a company that mines, grows or processes it in some way. In this post I will write about rice and grain.

Furthermore, we can also see some cyclicality in commodities, whether for example in the use of oil, where at least in the summer due to more interest in travel, demand increases slightly, or just in agricultural crops, which are affected by the weather.

India, which is the world's leading rice exporter, accounts for more than 40% of global rice trade. With immediate effect, it has banned the export of all but basmati white rice, the latest move in the government's efforts to rein in high food prices.

"Rice inflation has already accelerated from an average 6% year-on-year last year to nearly 12% in June 2023," said Rao of the DBS.

Analysts told CNBC that this week's ban could shoot already elevated prices even higher, compounding the effects from September's ban on the country's broken rice supply.

Next, I'll check out the report around wheat, the grain. Russia has now entered into a 2022 agreement that has been repeatedly extended before the next extension date. It should be said that before the turmoil in Russia and Ukraine, these two countries accounted for a quarter of global grain exports. That came to a halt for about six months.

This was also reflected in the price, as can be seen from the chart at the time of the start of the invasion in 2022. Subsequently, the situation around this commodity calmed down as the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed in July 2022, which helped open Ukrainian ports to supply the world.

Now Moscow has formally notified Ankara, Kiev and the UN Secretariat that it opposes the extension of the initiative. "Only if concrete results are received, not promises and assurances, will Russia be ready to consider the renewal of the 'agreement'," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. They stressed that the agreement expires on July 18 and is only "ordered to serve the narrow self-interests" of Kiev and its Western allies.

Under the deal, more than 1,000 ships carrying nearly 33 million metric tons of agricultural products have sailed from Ukraine's war-weary Black Sea ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, formerly known as Yuzhnyy.

The agreement also oversaw the shipment of 725,167 metric tons of wheat on World Food Programme ships to some of the world's most food insecure countries, such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Of course, this is immediately perceived very negatively and the aggression against Russia is deepening in the Western world. Of course, I personally don't see so much into these things and probably few ordinary people do. On the one hand, as we have had a little debate here before about this conflict, I personally am not so much just against Russia, but I would also be very wary of Ukraine. Moreover, what does the West expect from Russia that it will take everything lying down and still be happy to supply us. Well probably not, Europe is beating its chest about cutting Russia off and slapping it with a load of sanctions, but so far it seems to me that Europe's "pride" is going to get us into trouble here. If nothing else, I'll keep an eye on this and if it translates even more into commodity prices, I'll consider speculative trades again and make some money on it.