How to be a Commodity Broker

This test determines your qualification to work in commodity markets.

The commodities market is a world in which many want to participate. The commercialization of products at an international level has a certain appeal: only the right people become actual commodity brokers. They are responsible for a huge part of the commercial activities that lead to the manufacturing of all the existing products around the world. Commodity brokers participate in a lot of processes, from products sourcing to their transportation, and more importantly the paperwork.  So, if this is something you are interested in, then you are in the right place. Today we’ll give you the basic guidelines on how to be a commodity broker.

What does a commodity broker do?

Commodities brokers are responsible for the products business trade in large quantities, which are transported from one place to another, to a national or international level. These people work as negotiators between the different parties of a commercial agreement and are legally responsible for the operation. Most operate within an agency and are represented by it. But some also become a commodities brokers on their own.

Now, how to become one? Well, it’s fairly simple: you’ll have to study. To be a commodities broker, you’ll have to pass a test to acquire the legal qualifications. This certification is fundamental, as you’ll be working on an economic and legal environment that will require extense knowledge of all the regulations to achieve the proper results. One thing you need to consider is that acing the “series 3” exam is not a simple feat. In fact, this test is considered one of the hardest professional qualifications in the world. It involves legal, mathematical and logical knowledge.

You’ll have to prepare ahead and do your best to get that qualification. Then, you’ll have to work in the trading world to gain in-field experience. Many commodity brokers work with a firm or with a particular business to enter this world. This allows them to cooperate with other brokers and work with a structured base. With their knowledge and preparation, you can shape your techniques to do the best possible job.

You'll see that being a commodity broker poses more challenges than you expected. This world is filled with people that can do the same thing as you, but with their own professional approach. Most of these professional specializations are focused on the particular markets where they work. But regardless of that, a commodity broker is an analyst that must see the whole picture. While some companies do have an investigation team, others focus on the creation of business opportunities or similar activities. Knowing all the different fields where you can work on is fundamental if you want to be a commodity broker.

Commodity brokers are also specialized salespeople and legal aides. Good brokers know how to tackle the challenges they face with a positive and cooperative attitude.This generally means being the middleman or the moderator for commercial operations, as well as a guiding figure to other aspects of the trade business. They become enablers, guides and, above all, partners for their clients. All these mentioned characteristics are required for a successful career in the business.

Is this something you are interested in? Then find the way to be a commodity broker! Countless brokerage firms train their employees, but you can even start by yourself in the trading world. However, associating and working with professionals is always the best bet. Coagro Corp knows this. For that reason, they work with expert commodity brokers and train their team to obtain the best business opportunities for their clients. Contact them to find out more about how they work!

Preparing in advance and getting the right qualification opens many doors in the commodity business.

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Buying or Selling: the Characteristics of each Commodity Market

They have fundamentally divided into two: the buying and the selling categories.

Commodity markets are huge. They take a good part of the international commerce, and will, without doubt, remain as one of the most important commercial activities in the world. It helps the producers and the manufacturing industries and generates billions of dollars in transactional value on a daily basis. From small nations to huge companies, all benefit from the buying-selling process in the commodity market. But what are the characteristics for each one of these processes? That’s what we’ll be talking about today.

Both, buying and selling processes, are done by commercial entities or personal representatives. For many, the alliance with a particular commodity firm or broker entails a legal backup and responsibility. For producers, they are their allies and representatives in the market, and for manufacturers, they are the providers for their business. But how are they differentiated?

Buying commodities

Industries and service providers require raw materials to work, and commodities brokers are the source and the responsible entities to get them. They interact directly with the providers, giving them opportunities to establish long-lasting trading alliances and be participants in the prices and trading conditions adjustments for their potential customers.

However, buying commodities does not only implies acquiring the product and then selling it.  There are several ways in which a company can benefit from being a commodity buyer, and this is one of the principal characteristics that differentiate this market. The buyers in the commodity market can do two things: buy directly from the product’s sources, or buy from third parties. These two generate different profit margins, as well as distinct commercial responsibilities. The profit margins are bigger for those that cut down the middle man and go straight to the source, as a big portion of that profit can go to the third party that you use to buy your products.  

Selling commodities

The selling process for commodities is entirely different. Commodities contracts generally work with products that haven't gone through any previous manufacturing process. As these are destined for industrial purposes, the transportation and selling are handled in significant amounts: tonnes, containers, and bulks, for example. It’s also implied in the process that the third parties involved (aside from the provider) agree on the prices and the transportation methods. Often, the selling party has the responsibility to transport the product to its final destination.

The work of commodity brokers and firms is deeply involved in the achievement of the desired result: happy customers. These clients are often companies that also need these products on an ongoing basis, making the selling process a constant. For that reason, commodity brokers in charge of selling goods often come to agreements with the producers to establish a continuous flow of the product to satisfy future buyers demand.

They are also in charge of setting up prices for their buyers. Commodities markets are volatile, and most of them have constantly slight variations as a result of several factors: the date of the year, possible damage to the production, incorporation of another industrial entity, the general demand and offer, and so on.

As you can see, both buying and selling processes on the commodities market vary slightly from one to another. It’s important that you acknowledge that you need professional aid to obtain the best possible results in the commodity industry. Coagro Corp is a company with over 20 years of experience in the market, which offers their customers the best profit margin. From consulting to actual business operations, they know how to handle the ups and downs and make selling and buying processes a great opportunity for you!

Knowing how each one of these work, will help you make a better decision.

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How to Create Stable Business Alliances

Alliances are valuable to achieve new working opportunities.

Most businesses don't work as standalone, self-sufficient units. They depend on the cooperative and synchronized work, on the distribution of different tasks, to achieve the desired result. This happens both on internal and external commercial partnerships. Businesses are bound to interact with other companies, whether for the sourcing, manufacture or distribution of the product. On average, they’ll have to interact with at least 5 other enterprises. However, to achieve the desired results, this work-mode requires cooperative work to a level that most people do not function on a daily basis. We're talking about something called “business alliances.”

What’s a business alliance?

These are societies among business owners, established to work on a particular goal. Evidently, the activities will not be the same for each party on the alliance, but all will work towards a common objective, with a similar approach. For example, a company that manufactures electronics will often require small components that another company fabricates. So they will establish a business alliance. This alliance is more than just a selling-buying transaction. Both parties will benefit from the operation, and they build a cooperative approach to the goal: the delivery of a top electronic product.

These alliances variate from market to market and depending on which part of the commerce chain you focus. The priorities of each business owner will variate from one to the other, creating a diversity of possible alliances within the same company. There are, however, 5 different general categories you should know:

• Sales: focuses on complementing or cooperating in the necessary actions to sell a product in the market.
• Joint-venture: a commercial brands merger to sell the same product.
• Investment: mutual funds are used in the commercial activity.
• Geographic-involvement: all parties involved work in a geographically co-branded product.
• Solution-oriented: cooperate to find a solution to specific problems.

A company may have more than one of these alliances, and while it might seem a bit redundant, they all depend on the relationships established in other alliances. Commercial activities alliances are focused on the operative value of the associations, and these work as a living organism: any failure in one party, affects the performance of the other parties. For that reason, you need to ensure that the relationships you establish are stable and constructive for your venture's goal.

These are the best indications to build a stable business alliance in any business:

• Follow a plan: for business alliances to work, there has to be a system or order, which can only be established through well-thought planning. Have that always in mind, and consider it a vital part of your agenda.
• Focus on personal development: while it might not seem relevant, the attitude that every member of a business alliance has is fundamental to the overall success of the work. Focus on creating personal and professional growth opportunities for each party, as this will guarantee a profitable business relationship.

Reshape the agreements: often when businesses grow, their alliances become stagnant. Don't be afraid to reshape or renew your agreements with them. Focus on your business growth opportunities and both profit margins as this will increase their wish to work with you.  

Be mindful of the details: small things matter in business alliances. When you are an attentive associate, you are more likely to have a long-standing relationship with your allies. Remember all those little comments, create shared calendars, and focus on being supportive. That will build a positive rapport.

How do you establish business alliances? Coagro Corp focuses on creating long-standing business associations in the corporative world. They ensure that all their business associates are prepared to tackle all the challenges they face with the support that 20 years of experience in the commodity world guarantees. With quality and price stability, is no wonder why they are leaders in the commodity service for green coffee, milk, sugar oil and selected grains. Contact them now!

These partnerships are achieved through sincerity and responsibility in business associations.

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Customer’s Satisfaction: How to Achieve It

Transform your business into one that cares for their clients.

In any business, ensuring that every single one of their customers is satisfied is part of the final goal, the ultimate profit margin. You need to ensure these clients come to you when they need you, as well as that they refer you to other potential customers in the future. For them, satisfying their needs is fundamental, but how do you, as a venture, ensure that this actually happens? That whoever you cater to is happy and voice its opinions about the service? Today you can learn how to achieve this in the business world.

Not every company is alike, and this is something you need to consider when finding ways to ensure customer satisfaction. Your brand mission statement, as well as the target customers,  play a key role in how you are going to be perceived. If you are a commercial entity that caters to the everyday customer, their constant feedback -or lack thereof- is part of the daily routine. But what happens when you are a much larger company, that caters to other business ventures? There, the customer satisfaction indicators shift and will be mostly placed by emails, on conversations with the managers or department leaders, and even on how they state you as benchmark (or not) in front of other companies.

A good indicator for large enterprises when it comes to customer satisfaction is the recommendations they get. When clients are satisfied with a service, they will want to share it with others. This means that they become your allies in a way: they will consume your product or service, while simultaneously bringing in new customers and business opportunities. This might not seem like an obvious thing, but it’s very effective defining how happy your clients are with your business service.

But how can you potentiate this? How can you ensure that your customers will become your aides and that you satisfy their needs? Today, we'll give you a simple guide that you can implement in your day-to-day routine. You’ll see results in no time!

• Get personal: for most companies, a personal approach to their customers brings positive results. Creates rapport with them and allows you to get first-hand their personal and professional opinions.
• Do follow-ups: the lack of monitoring often leads to problematic situations. A customer that doesn’t feel catered for is a customer that’s likely to terminate any business associations. Take time to verify how they are feeling about your product or service.
• Be trustable: when you work as an elusive entity, you’re not likely to get customer feedback. If these people don’t feel like they can trust you, then they will simply not do business with you.
• Satisfy their needs: if you are going to work with people in their business, you need to be prepared to comply with their requirements. Whether commercial or legally, you are who they place their money and trust on, so rise to the challenge.
• Facilitate other solutions: sometimes, if you can do one part of the required business, but not the other, you need to lend other solutions, like partnering up with a third party through outsourcing, to satisfy the client demands. This often leads to a wholehearted recommendation.

Ensuring that your clients are happy with your service is a way to create future business opportunities. Coagro Corp knows this. Through their service as a commodity broker, they provide you with high-quality raw materials. But they also ensure to offer their customers the necessary assistance for other commercial operations. Check their social media and website to know more!

This is a question that all business owners should make themselves.

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How Quality Standards set in the Commodity Industry

Commodity markets need well-established quality standards.

Every industry sets quality standards for their products. These are determinant for the development of the industry, as well as to set the general goods' value on the market. Businesses focus on creating a quality standard with lower and higher margins for each product. But this is no arbitrary decision. There's a whole process behind them that makes these standards effective for the market where they are set. For most industrial activities, these quality standards are established after careful studies per product, with several factors taken into account.

The upper and lower quality margins can be adjusted according to the requirements of the market where these products will establish. The broader product categories consider all their characteristics, as they play an important part in the norms that are used to define the individual standards. This is done through the investigation of the goods' uses and their basic composition, as well as the conditions that can be considered damaging for those elements. For example, certain food products are more prone to pests (like wheat is to certain insects). That means that the quality standard has to contain an indication of the product's tolerance to these pests, even if they are small numbers. This of course, also depends on the use of the product.

Any industrial activity will require the specification of what an ideal product should look like for that particular area. This ‘look’ is not only regarding the aspect. It also implies flavor, texture, freshness and other characteristics, depending on the nature of the product. The intended use will also play a fundamental role in the quality normative. Products that are going to be consumed (with little to no processing) by humans need to have a different normative regarding chemicals and pests than those that are going to be manufactured and form part of the alimentation process for cattle, for example. While that’s an arbitrary example, it’s what most business use as a general guideline: depending on the origin and future use of the material, they set norms.

These will often be related to the consumer safety, but they can also refer to the particularities of the market. For example, certain products have a higher quality standard per country, such as coffee in Colombia or cacao in Venezuela. Both countries focus on exporting the highest-quality material according to their industry, meaning individual set characteristics for these products, as the purity and flavor profiles. And many industries do the same. Focusing on those particular aspects, they define what can be tolerated as a ‘flaw’ and lower quality standards, while the higher standards are set based on purity and general value of the product in that location.

Did you know that these standards variate per industry and even within the category of product? Commodities are an ever changing market, that according to many experts, evolves at an incredibly fast pace. For that reason, staying on top of those changes, especially those related to the products' quality, is fundamental for a successful work. Coagro Corp focuses on it and makes sure to know the current quality standards to acquire the best raw materials for their clients. Contact them and learn more about what they can provide to your company!

These standards are established to create a minimum deviation from producer to producer.

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Main Grain Uses on the Industry

Grains are the main materials in the processing of several manufactured goods.

Manufacturing industries rely on raw material to produce their goods. Most of these companies procure commodity services to provide them their materials. These associations guarantee the existence of the things they need to produce their products in a timely manner. The grain industry is one of these, and today you’ll learn some of the goods they make with their selected commodities.

What’s the grain industry?

When you think of grains, the first thing that comes to mind is surely corn, rice, or wheat. But these three are only a small fraction of the industry. There’s a vast selection of grains that are used in this sector to produce a wide array of manufactured goods. These products can be just cleaned and packaged in their original presentations, or pass through a more complex process to produce other goods.

This industry is monitored in the US by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). The producers that provide the grains (whether domestically grown or imported) depend on this organization. Grains are subjected to quality control and are characterized for being traded by companies that don’t do any manufacturing processes: they are extracted from the crops, selected and directly shipped to their destinations.

The main grains uses are the following:

• Canned products: think of red and black beans, which are part of most pantries in the country. They are fundamental for several cultures and shape a good portion of the grain industry.
• Cereals: puffed rice and corn are among the most known grain uses in the manufacturing industry. Cereals are also an important part of the Americans diet since they are consumed an average of 5 times a week in most US households.
• Flours: grains can also be processed to produce flours. These are usually made and packaged by the same processing plant, which uses grains like wheat and corn, along with rice and other grains in smaller proportions, in the manufacturing process.
• Complementary elements: grains can be used for other preparations, mostly for canned goods, as an additional ingredient to other products.  
• Natural options: the industry of grains is also enhanced by the consumption of food with little manufacturing involved. Vegans or people with a natural approach search for these grains, originating an industry dominated by organic products.
• Secondary industries: other manufacturing companies can use the derived grains products, such as flour, to produce their goods. This is a secondary industry and the primary buyer of the grain manufacturing industries.

These different fields represent the industry, and all of them depend on the quality of the provided material. For that reason, looking for commodity services that ensure a high-quality raw material is fundamental for these industries. They need to have associates that work with the right providers to secure an efficient, timely, top-quality production.

Coagro Corp works with several industries to ensure they can provide the best commodities on the market at the time they are needed. One of those businesses they work side by side with is the grain industry. With selected availability, price stability and 20 years of experience, it’s no wonder why the grain industry picks a provider like Coagro Corp.

They are an essential part of the food sector.

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7 Pieces of Advice to Work in Commodity Business

This requires knowledge and preparation, but you can achieve it with these simple tips.

Learning the secrets and insights of a business is a great way to stay prepared for the challenges of that area. Knowing the small facts and secrets of the business activity makes an incredible difference as far as problem-solving goes, for example. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as how relevant this knowledge is for your professional practice. For that reason, it’s advisable that you think of getting a bit of insider knowledge before delving into the commodity business. Once you do, however, there are a few things that we can teach you on how to work in the commodity business and succeed. Want to know more? Here are these incredible 7 pieces of advice!

• Prepare for the certifications: like any business qualification, the ones related to commodity tasks are particularly tricky. The Series 3  is considered among the hardest professional qualifications. To prepare for it, study for the test beforehand, investigate and face it like any other academical test: with time and preparation.

• Invest in your qualifications: other professional skills also need some investment. Certifications in quality assessment, a particular product knowledge, creation of documentation and so on, requires a significative investment. Not only in monetary value, but in time. While they might take a big part of your working hours, in the future, they will come in handy to present yourself with professionalism in front of potential clients and providers.

• Define your specialty: commodity markets are incredibly varied. While most of them deal with raw material, the number of sub categories to be on is astounding. Finding one where to specialize is your best bet. This will allow you to focus on the demands and characteristics of that particular field, helping you create effective strategies for your potential clients.

• Create a provider network: after you define your specialty, you need to connect with the providers. They will be the ones that at the end of the day, will help your business be productive. Contacting and establishing mutually beneficial associations with providers of your field will ensure that you get business opportunities and be a step ahead of your competitors.

• Build working partnerships: other people in the commodity business need to be your priority aside from clients. Commodity brokers often get contacted by people that want the product they specialize in, but others will be searching for products they don’t handle. Creating working partnerships ensures that you can satisfy the demands of your client through a third party, and both of you will be earning something out of that association.

• Develop a personal brand: while most commodity brokers work side by side with a bigger company, creating a solid personal brand often does make a difference. This means that you need to take care of your public image and work thinking of how your actions can impact in your professional profile. Most people investigate their potential commodity brokers ahead of time and will back out of a potential deal if they see a lack of professionalism from the commodity broker. This means: take care of the image you portray online, as this is your second presentation card.

• Act the part: while for most this might not seem like a big deal, behaving at all times as a professional makes a difference in the commodity business. If you are sure of what you know and you are competent, then act like it. That confident attitude will not be negative if used the right way. People see this image you are projecting and will feel like their money and cargo are in capable hands. Even if you are a bit nervous at first, you need to be the businessman your clients need to trust!

Working in commodities does not mean working entirely on your own. It means preparing and learning all you can, both professionally and personally. Commodity brokers are professionals that specialize in trading and require not only a particular skill set but also a focus on what they are doing. Prepare and learn all the work field and personal insights and be the best broker in the commodity business!

Coagro Corp knows the importance of information and preparation. For that reason they have become the to-go option in the commodity business: with their professionalism, they have established a two-decade reputation, and they are the leaders on the importation of green coffee, sugar, milk, oil and selected nuts. Contact them to know more and keep reading the blog to find out more about their insider knowledge of the commodity business!

When you learn these secret tips, you will be more successful in this business!

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