Commodity information at the click of a mouse

In Sao Tome and Principe, cocoa is the mainstay of the economy. It accounts for a staggering 93% of total exports, and the population depends largely on cocoa bean farming for a living. Sao Tome and Principe is not an exception. Out of 141 developing countries, 95 are more than 50% dependent on commodity exports - and in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, the figure is 80%.

This dependence makes most countries particularly vulnerable to commodity market fluctuations. Yet few have access to verified and real-time information on primary sector market values and export opportunities.

Paradoxically, commodity trade requires a great deal of specific data - particularly on quality and price variations. To complicate matters, growing use of the Internet has resulted in such an abundance of unreliable news and data on commodity markets that it is time-consuming and costly to identify what is relevant and accurate. While multinational firms have no problems identifying the information they need, small farmers and producers do.