Vitol, Cargill, Glencore, Trafigura. They may be names of lubricants or auto parts, but they are the four largest commodities brokerages in the world. In 2019 alone, sales were $725 billion, well above Japanese exports. This activity is as old as commerce. However, as the Spaniard Javier Blas and the Briton Jack Farchy explain in: The world for salehas experienced tremendous growth thanks to a handful of adventurers, especially since the opening of the oil markets in the 1970s.
The implosion of the USSR and the economic explosion in China presented other golden opportunities for these obscure companies, which in recent decades have been increasingly exploited by bank guarantees and loans available to the few and in this way the purchase – including bribes – of large quantities of insured at the point of production, be it cocoa, cobalt or petroleum. His power is so great that he can determine the fate of wars, yet it is exercised by so few: companies are not listed or regulated.
Source: DN
