Never before has the commodities and supply chain sector been more competitive. Whether an organization is an established player within the sector, or one that is entering the market, when they effectively manage their supply chain they will create excellent opportunities.

By improving processes, systems and strategies, the organization will improve their position in the market and their profitability. The design and management of supply chains in the competitive business environment of commodity trade is one of the most important and difficult problems faced by this industry. Strategic decisions, such as growth of facility locations , additional products traded and technology selection play a major role when companies develope a competitive strategy. Once the supply chain configuration is determined, the focus shifts to decisions at the tactical and operational levels, such as inventory management decisions on raw materials, intermediate products, and end products; and distribution decisions within the supply chain.

To operate an effective supply chain system, the decision-maker needs to have information on at least the following items:

• Traffic of the operation with the scheduled voyages and insurance
• Locations, warehouses & in transit storage
• Quality control and the tracking & tracing on the lot and contract level
• Blending & reprocessing to improve profitability and supplier effectiveness
• Invoicing, with preliminary & final invoices and the facilitation of Umpire
• Pledging, warrants and Tri-Partite agreement