Recent Press Releases
Contact: Karen M. McCary
Director of Communications

May 18, 2009 INFORMA ECONOMICS TO STUDY FEEDSTOCKS OF THE FUTURE: PROSPECTS FOR DEDICATED BIOFUEL CROPS The existing renewable fuels industry has been built on the use of traditional food and feed commodities. However, environmental sustainability, the food versus fuel impasse and other factors have driven renewable energy development and policy, particularly in the US and European Union, toward the development of dedicated biofuels feedstocks. The development of these second-generation feedstocks, including switchgrass, sweet sorghum, camelina, miscanthus, jatropha and algae, is substantially supported from strong public and private investment. View/print the entire press release April 30, 2009 INFORMA ANNOUNCES ADDITION TO MARGINQUEST STAFF Informa Economics, Inc., announces the addition of Kenneth Wagar to the company’s business consulting staff effective May 1. "The addition of Ken to our staff provides a key consulting resource to the company's MarginQuest business unit, which is focused on providing analysis and business consulting to supply chain participants interested in understanding and managing demand for their products at the consumer contact point," said Informa Chairman of the Board and CEO Bruce Scherr. "The MarginQuest program's initial thrust will be on category management in the fresh meat case, utilizing retail scan data as a source for building dynamic demand models and integrating their results with more traditional category management analysis in the perishables segment of the retail store." View/print the entire press release April 27, 2009 LENGTH, DEPTH OF CURRENT RECESSION, IMPACT OF HIGH FEED COSTS ON AGRI-FOOD VALUE CHAIN TO HIGHLIGHT INFORMA ECONOMICS' SPRING CONFERENCE Informa Commodity Market Analysis Workshop to Follow Conference The financial turmoil across the globe has created unparalleled economic uncertainty. Also, demand destruction is a common theme thus far in 2009. When combined with the fact that the record high feed costs of 2008 still are impacting the value-added sectors, these key issues put the meat, poultry, dairy, livestock and related industries in an incomparable situation. That is why Informa Economics has brought together the company's best economists and analysts to dissect each of these key issues facing every segment of the agri-food value chain and present their outlooks at Informa Economics' Annual Livestock, Meat, Poultry and Dairy Spring Conference and Industry Overview to be held May 13-14 at the Hilton Hotel, Memphis, Tenn. View/print the entire press release March 17, 2009 US INLAND BARGE FLEET EXPANDS, PRESSURE MIXED ON INLAND RIVER BARGES The US inland barge fleet expanded for the third consecutive year. While still below the historical high in 1998, there were 1,076 new barges added to the overall fleet while 935 barges were retired, according to a just-released report by Informa Economics, Inc.  Among the different barge types, the number of covered barges declined for the tenth consecutive year while the number of open and tank fleet barges increased. The Barge Fleet Profile, now in its 22nd year, is an annual report published by Informa Economics. The report identifies the line haul, commodity carrying fleet of inland barges operating on the Mississippi River system, its connecting waterways and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The report, which is compiled through an annual survey of operators as well as information from the Army Corps of Engineers, also summarizes the size and average age of the fleet by barge operator for each type of barge. Included are covered barges that move grains and oilseeds, fertilizers, steel and other products, as well as open barges that haul coal, sand, gravel and similar product types. Details on tank barges that transport liquid products, such as crude oils and renewable fuels, also are incorporated into the report. View/print the entire press release March 10, 2009 INFORMA ECONOMICS ANNOUNCES ADDITION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STAFF Informa Economics, Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Scott recently announced a new addition within the company's Information Technology (IT) staff. Sean Tanksley recently joined the company as a program developer. Tanksley comes to Informa Economics from Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., Memphis, Tenn., where he spent four years as a lead support specialist and application developer. In this position, he directed the development of an all-inclusive metrics tool, supervised a team of service desk employees, contractors and web developers, managed diverse web design projects, and created effective training programs for personnel. Prior to this work, Tanksley spent two years as a domain architect at Black Hawk Gaming in Colorado where he updated and maintained wide-ranging IT infrastructure activities for corporate offices and three high-volume casinos. He also spent two years as a support specialist for Harrah's in North Kansas City, Mo., and Vicksburg, Miss., where he designed, developed and implemented innovative restaurant and meeting room reservation web application, which provided seamless organizational business processes. Another change within Informa's IT department was that Jon Hall was named Informa Economics' Director of Information Technology. Hall has been with the company for seven years and directs all of the company's IT services, including management of software and database development, intranet/internet development, technical infrastructure and disaster recovery for Informa Economics. Prior to joining the company, he was the senior systems architect for Farms.com. He also worked for MC², a commercial software development company, where he was a senior application developer. Hall received his bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering technology from The University of Memphis. View/print the entire press release March 4, 2009 INFORMA ECONOMICS TO ISSUE WHITE PAPER ON IMPLICATIONS OF SURGING GLOBAL PROTECTIONISM ON US AGRICULTURE A major component of the agricultural markets (our overseas sales) now faces an intense and growing threat from widespread, new, protectionist policies. These take many forms—from traditional border taxes, licenses or other import restrictions to much more subtle approaches that manipulate currencies, discriminate with taxes, impose "buy domestic" requirements and/or labels, or manipulate sanitary and phytosanitary rules. Increasingly, trading partners are considering ways to use these and similar approaches to protect domestic producers. View/print the entire press release March 2, 2009 INFORMA RELEASES STUDY ON LARGE TRADER INFLUENCE IN FUTURES MARKETS Informa Economics Inc., a leader in broad-based domestic and international agricultural and commodity product market research and analysis, announced today the release of an important study on the influence of large traders on commodity futures market performance. The study finds little empirical evidence that large trader groups, such as index funds and managed money, were routinely detrimental to the studied futures markets, which included corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, crude oil and natural gas. The findings were based on data collected from Jan. 1, 2005, through Jun. 30, 2008, that was provided by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the government regulator for commodity markets. The study was commissioned by CME Group, the Kansas City Board of Trade, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and ICE Futures US. To review the study, CLICK HERE... View/print the entire press release Feb 20, 2009 INFORMA ECONOMICS TO STUDY FARM SECTOR STRUCTURE, PERFORMANCE IN ERA OF VOLATILITY, UNCERTAINTY The agricultural landscape is changing rapidly. Farming continues to become increasingly highly technological, the largest operations are getting bigger, and recent growth in the biofuels markets and export demand have attracted investment across the sector. But the agricultural industry now faces an unusual level of uncertainty as the world-wide recession clouds the near-term prospects for many markets. And it remains to be seen whether the ongoing financial crises will undermine agriculture’s strong financial position. View/print the entire release Jan 16, 2009 INFORMA ECONOMICS ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS Informa Economics, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Scherr recently announced several promotions within the company. Jim Wiesemeyer was named an Informa Economics Senior Vice President. From his office in Washington, D.C., Wiesemeyer contributes daily to the Informa Economics Morning Comments report, providing clients with the latest information on agricultural policy and trade developments...more David Alley was named a Senior Consultant of Informa Economics. With the company since 2004, Alley’s primary responsibilities include research and analyses for international and domestic consulting clients, with particular emphasis in corporate risk management and hedging as well as market simulation techniques...more Pierre Ganiere also was named a Senior Consultant for the company. Since joining Informa in 2004, his primary responsibilities include research and analyses for international and domestic consulting clients, using his experience in a number of domestic and international projects involving market assessment, financial, economic and competitive analyses studies...more Stephen Harris also was named a Senior Consultant of Informa Economics. With the company since 2005, Harris’ primary responsibilities include research and analyses for international and domestic consulting clients, with particular emphasis in financial business analysis...more Nate Donnay was named an Informa Economics Senior Analyst. Based in Informa Economics’ Eagan, Minnesota, office, Donnay is primarily responsible for fundamental research and analysis in the dairy markets...more View/print the entire release

Informa Economics, Inc., a division of Informa, is a world leader in comprehensive agriculture, food industry, agribusiness and commodity research, information, analysis and consulting. With a core team of research analysts and consulting specialists, Informa Economics serves many of the world's leading agribusinesses. Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the company has offices in Washington, D.C.; Grand Rapids, Michigan; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Winnipeg, Canada. It is the company’s economic expertise and client base that combine to provide unique insights and strategic and long-term planning for agribusinesses around the world.