"We need broad-scale systems and international management" – which is why the top recommendation in the FAO report was for standardised commodity codes by product to make clear what is being imported and exported around the world.
They rely at best on a seasoned reporter's ability to interpret what his sources tell him about bids, offers and deals, and at worst on a gullible greenhorn's guesswork.The standardised commodity contracts that trade transparently on busy exchanges do not always cater to the many different specifications required by industry.
It is our view that biofuel systems are more susceptible to the shortcomings of the LCA method, and to differences in interpretation, than typical petrochemical processes working with standardised equipment and commodity feedstocks.
It is our view that these factors are likely to be more important for biofuel processes than for typical petroleum refinery or petrochemical processes, which work with standardised equipment and commodity, high energy density feedstocks.
To get around this problem, the tax authorities ask for intra-company transactions to be made on an "arm's-length" basis, meaning that the prices are similar to those a company might pay if dealing with an unrelated business.This principle is easy to apply to standardised goods such as commodities, but much harder when it comes to more specialised products.
The hope is that contracts will gradually become more standardised, allowing them to be traded like commodities themselves.
"The standardised, sexy Parisienne has always served an important function for the country – it is a commodity that luxury brands want to associate themselves with, a part of the French landscape," said Julie Levoyer, a high-end beauty consultant.
But standardised to whose technology?
The standardised test will take three hours.
Dates aren't commodities.
They are expendable commodities.
