@kankala

I think it is all pure speculations. As for traders it is very easy to check real contents.

Broke people stopped buying fancy olive oil. Saturated markets. I mean, polyunsaturated.

I do not believe this. In 2008 people did not start consuming more suddenly, so all this markets have demand only as part of equation. Other, bigger part, are speculation of large traders, banks and funds.

and their price spike just mirrors that of crude oil in 07/08.

It is not their price and crude oil have nothing to do with this, just check other resources and food charts.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev @jweeke I agree with both of you as you have reasons. Actually you express the same opinion from different angles of view, no contradictions between your statements.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev sorry for noob question:

How this : "The Greek owned fleet is the largest in the world . Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 18 per cent of the world’s tonnage; this makes it currently the largest single international merchant fleet in the world"

does explain this: "why main media strike is focused on Greece. And not on Great Britain or Japan." ?

What is the relation between those facts?

That makes sense. Olive oil hinges on standard supply, demand, and shipping, while soy and sunflower get run around by speculators. And now we get good cheap olive oil because freight is nearly free.

So do you think the soy, sunflower, etc, are aggressively speculated on BECAUSE they're produced by massive corporations? Or is it a more complicated relationship?

Greece is a major player in the international shipping industry, with nearly 4,000 ships – 8 percent of all vessels sailing – and 15 percent of the world's total moving capacity. Greek ship owners control 25 percent of the world tanker fleet. Shipping accounts for 6 percent of Greece's GDP and generates 75 percent of the Mediterranean country's estimated 400,000 jobs tied to maritime activities, according to George Gratsos, president of the Piraeus-based Hellenic Chamber of Shipping.

Since 2000, Greek ship owners have ordered nearly 500 vessels from China's shipyards. 155 vessels have been delivered while an estimated remaining 250 are still under construction, wrote Theodore Vokos, president of Posidonia Exhibitions, in a research note. Posidonia holds the maritime industry's largest annual shipping event in Athens.

"From 2002 to 2011, Greece was directly investing roughly US$64 billion in the Chinese shipping industry every one-and-a-half to two years," Kyrakides said

Via: http://www.china.org.cn/business/2012-01/19/content_24444746.htm

@vitaliy_kiselev

So basically at the moment we're in deep shit. Well, as a nice side effect, I can afford to use a lot of delicious olive oil. Any other commodities you put in that group of indicators?

@dream_beam

This is report from May 2011 as I see

@Vitaliy_Kiselev You are right. Sorry. The news in the report sound as if they are written for May 2012, many similarities. Still the report is of interest as it shows how many different factors are involved in swings at commodities markets.