The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) today announced that CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange and leading agricultural commodities market, will sponsor the 2008 U.S. - Africa Agribusiness Forum to be held in Chicago June 25-27. Charles P. Carey, CME Group Vice Chairman, will deliver the opening keynote address.
Through his address, Mr. Carey will focus on the current state of world agriculture markets as well as the role of commodity exchanges as a forum for price discovery used for economic growth and investment. CME Group is the combined entity formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.
"The world food shortage, increasing commodity prices, and the biofuel debate have garnered a tremendous amount of attention from global agribusiness industry experts in the past several weeks," said CCA President Stephen Hayes. "Commodity exchanges play a significant role in many of these issues, and we are looking forward to Mr. Carey's remarks on the state of world agriculture markets, commodity exchanges, and increasing economic growth in Africa."
According to the World Bank up to 80% of Africa's labor force is engaged in agriculture and agribusiness-related enterprises with a total value of more than $206.7 billion in 2006 in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, agriculture generated more than one-third of Africa's GDP growth.
"The fundamentals that have come together including increased demand, decreased supplies, weather, corn for ethanol use and the decreased value of the dollar, just to name a few, have created unprecedented conditions that have been reflected in agricultural markets," said Carey. "On behalf of CME Group, I am pleased to have this opportunity to talk about the necessity of price transparency and access to global markets with U.S. and African leaders."
Carey has been Vice Chairman of CME Group since July 2007 and served as Chairman of CBOT since 2003. Previously, he served on the CBOT board of directors for eleven years in various roles, including Vice Chairman, First Vice Chairman and Full Member Director. An independent commodity futures trader, Carey became a member of CBOT in 1978 and is a partner in the firm Henning and Carey.
The 2008 Agribusiness Forum, Investing in Agriculture Links, in Africa is organized by CCA's Agribusiness Initiatives Program. The forum is expected to attract more than 300 leaders from the private and public sectors in the U.S. and Africa.
The two-day forum will include industry-specific workshop sessions, networking opportunities, and plenary sessions where industry experts will provide the latest, cutting-edge information on various agribusiness issues. Topics for discussion include cross-cutting issues such as financing; commodity trading markets; food security; infrastructure investment to connect African markets; market information systems improvement; product innovation; cash crop production and investment; livestock production and investment; pharmaceutical growth; bio-fuel industry growth; carbon trading; and production technology.
Other event sponsors include the U.S. Agency for International Development; Novus International, Inc.; Buchanan Renewables; Schaffer Global Group; Illovo Sugar; World Cocoa Foundation; All Africa Global Media; Watt Publishing; African Business; African Decisions; and Corporate Africa. -- www.cme.com
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