Can you fill us in on your background and your role at Numidia?
I started working at Numidia in 2017 straight after I graduated. I got the opportunity to start in the derivatives team where I could combine trading derivatives with market intelligence, so mostly looking at the data behind it and sharing that information as fast as possible with the rest of the organisation. Since last year, I have been responsible for the whole team and the futures trading globally, so my current role still goes hand in hand with the market intelligence team.
“Vesper helps our traders to quickly digest a lot of information, it’s made them more comfortable with data and kept them better informed; it’s helpful in their daily contact with customers”
How does a company like Numidia use data for decision making?
Nowadays, information is key and is getting more and more important. Thanks to tools like Vesper, the global market is becoming more transparent, as the information is available to all the players of the market. At Numidia, we use different kinds of data to analyse long and short-term trends. On the one hand, we look at bigger macro-economic factors, like how other commodities are behaving, how the economy is developing, inflation, interest rates and how that can funnel back into the Dairy sector. On the other hand, we look at fundamental data to see how our imports and exports are developing, price data and sentiment which can influence the short-term price.
How has Vesper changed the way you work? Has it improved or changed the workflow?
I think one of the biggest benefits of Vesper is the user-friendly interface, which has helped traders to quickly digest a lot of information, made them more comfortable with data and kept them better informed; it’s very helpful in their daily contact with customers. This is especially helpful when we are allowed to travel a lot again, the traders can simply look at their phones and see how the prices are developing, how import/exports are doing etc. Beforehand, we just had a few analysts who shared the data with the team. Now however, the information comes from both sides, as everyone can now access the information.
“The VPI helps with creating a better picture of the market on a weekly basis”
What is your favourite feature of the tool that benefits you the most?
One of our favourite features is the Vesper Price Index (VPI). The liquidity and transparency of a lot of prices were previously not good in the dairy sector, especially with some of the less familiar products like the high proteins, or fat filled. The VPI helps with creating a better picture of the market on a weekly basis. The calculation sheets are also very helpful to our traders, because you only have to fill in your cost price and you see what milk prices calculate back to. Of course we have some calculation tools of our own, these are however not as straightforward.
“Vesper plays an important role in providing accessible data”
As the world starts to open up a little more again, the need to have data that is accessible anywhere, anytime is becoming more important. Can you see Vesper playing a role in that?
Yes, I definitely think Vesper plays an important role in providing accessible data. I especially like the notifications from the Vesper app, which lets you know when there is new data available.
Are there any other ways that Numidia uses Vesper?
Yes, during our traders meetings we show the milk collection graph. Also, we sometimes download data from the tool and make a rolling analysis of, for instance, the imports to see where the product is moving to.
If you could estimate how much time Vesper is saving you as an individual/team, how much would that be?
It definitely saves the analyst team a few hours per week. As opposed to us having to gather all the data ourselves or having to find out what the prices are, now we can just use the prices from Vesper. We also get a lot of requests from traders, asking us for information on import/exports. Now I can refer them to Vesper so they can see and download the data themselves, which saves our team a few hours per week.
