Investors to remain wary of agrifood during 2015

So-called “massive passive” investors may not hold such massive exposure to agriculture markets next year after poor returns across the commodities spectrum in 2014 sparked a wave of index investor redemptions ahead of the year-end.

At the end of 2014, index investors slashed their collective long exposure to the main crop markets (corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat and hard red winter wheat) by close to 96,000 contracts and its lowest level since the start of 2014.

In livestock (live cattle, lean hogs and feeder cattle) exposure was cut by nearly 14,000 lots and its lowest since mid-2009.