Many of the factors that impacted commodity trade in 2022 will again be factors to begin 2023. Some of these may even have more of an impact, especially from the weather front. Others will likely have less of an influence.

A topic that was at the forefront of the market for 2022 was the COVID restrictions in China. China locked down large volumes of its economy to try and contain COVID from spreading in what the country termed as a “Zero Tolerance Program.” This proved ineffective and caused damage to China’s economy instead.

One fall out from this move was a decline in Chinese commodity demand, especially for pork. At the end of 2022, China started to lift the restrictions after several weeks of civil unrest in the country. This didn't immediately raise China’s commodity demand, but it...