January 8, 2010

INFORMA ECONOMICS ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS

Informa Economics, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Scherr and Informa Economics President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Scott recently announced several promotions within the company.

Chris Eggerman was promoted to Informa Economics Senior Commodity Analyst within Informa's fundamental economic research and analysis service. Prior to joining the company, he was an agricultural research assistant within the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University. While there, he developed a stochastic model of Texas crops to forecast farm income for the state and analyzed the effects of rising fuel prices on Texas crop incomes. Eggerman also interned with USDA's Farm Service Agency where he reviewed and corrected reports of subsidy payments made to dairy farmers. He received his bachelor's degree in agricultural business from Missouri State University and received his master's degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University.

Mark Jordan also was promoted to Informa Economics Senior Poultry and Egg Analyst. Jordan is responsible for research of the broiler, turkey, and egg industries, and his analysis focuses on the short- and long-term impacts of changing market conditions within each sector. Prior to joining Informa, he was an agricultural statistician in the Pennsylvania field office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service where his duties included survey administration and setting commodity estimates. Jordan received a bachelor's degree in agribusiness from Arkansas State University and a master's degree in agricultural economics from the University of Arkansas.

Darwin Lockhart was named a Senior Consultant for the company. From Informa Economics' Winnipeg office, his primary responsibility is to provide analytic support in both projects and Canadian commodity research. This work encompasses a wide variety of sectors across Canadian agribusiness with areas of expertise including the use of Geographic Information System technology to provide site selection and spatial competitive analyses involving the evaluation and modeling of grain and their handling networks. Prior to joining the company, Lockhart worked for the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) where he held positions as market research analyst and market information manager. While at the WCE, Lockhart's primary responsibility was the coordination of all aspects of market information accumulation and dissemination. He received his bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Manitoba.

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November 2, 2009

INFORMA ECONOMICS' FALL OUTLOOK CONFERENCE TO HIGHLIGHT KEY FOCAL POINTS OF CHALLENGE AS WORLD EMERGES FROM ECONOMIC RECESSION

There are widening signals that the US financial meltdown that had spread across the globe may be nearing an end. As the economies around the world move toward recovery, there are some significant focal points of challenge that will be keys to whether the recovery will be solid or whether
certain dynamics that led to the recessionary environment will linger and, therefore, have further implications for businesses and commodities. How these interconnect will spotlight Informa Economics' 24th Annual Fall Outlook Conference to be held November 19-20 at the Hilton Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

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October 26, 2009

SIGNALDEMAND, INFORMA ECONOMICS FORM STRATEGIC GLOBAL ALLIANCE

SignalDemand and Informa Economics, Inc. today announced the formation of a strategic global alliance. Through this alliance, SignalDemand and Informa Economics will bring to market products, services, and business solutions that support better decision making within the global food industry.

“Both SignalDemand and Informa Economics are considered best-in-class in their areas. Through this partnership, we will provide leading edge web-based software solutions infused with deep industry expertise,” said Mike Neal, CEO and founder of SignalDemand. “Together we will deliver significant positive impact to our customers’ bottom lines.”

“Informa Economics has a long history of providing in-depth economic analysis, decision support products, services and consulting to the global food industry,” said Informa Economics Chairman of the Board and CEO Bruce Scherr. “Teaming with SignalDemand in support of their software business solutions to agriculture and food companies in North America and abroad is an exciting extension to Informa’s current business activities.”

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October 15, 2009

INFORMA ECONOMICS COMPLETES STUDIES ON GLOBAL VEGETABLE OILS AND BIODIESEL FEEDSTOCKS

Informa Economics has just released a multi-client study entitled “Global Vegetable Oil and Biodiesel Feedstocks: New Challenges Ahead.” The study examined in detail the drivers of vegetable oil and biodiesel supply and demand and formulated a 10-year global outlook for vegetable oil and biodiesel supply, demand, and prices. Some of the key areas examined in this study include:

• The potential for palm oil production;

• Vegetable oil price premiums;

• The transition away from trans-fat oils and the expansion of corn fractionation;

• The role of animal fats and spent restaurant grease as feedstock for biodiesel;

• The impact of the 10 percent biodiesel mandate passed by the EU in December 2008;

• Ten-year global outlook for vegetable production, use and prices;

• The potential for a more aggressive investment environment for jatropha, algae and camelina;

• The link between vegetable oils, animal fats, energy and risk management opportunities;

• The challenges in distributing and using 1 billion gallons of biodiesel in the US by 2012;

• The case for restructuring the US biodiesel industry, analyzing which plants are most competitive;

• Global biofuel policies and developments; and
  A 10-year global outlook for biodiesel.

For information about this study, contact Senior Vice President Juan Sacoto at 901-766-4669 juan.sacoto@informaecon.com.

CLICK HERE for the original prospectus and the table of contents for this study.

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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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