Governance
- Conflicts of interest
- Birkdal Partners Ltd originates farmland and forward supply contracts in covered markets and holds a commercial interest in West African agriculture. Price-setting staff disclose relevant interests and hold no speculative positions in covered commodities.
- Independence
- Birkdal-originated contracts reference Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) prices, not Birkdal assessments. Commentary is segregated from price formation.
- Audit trail
- Every published value is reproducible from source inputs. Records are retained indefinitely. Submitter data is confidential and processed under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).
- Assurance
- Independent assurance over the pricing process (oversight committee, separately governed entity or external audit against this methodology) is a condition precedent to third-party use of a Birkdal price for settlement, collateral valuation or contractual triggers.
- Corrections
- By dated notice stating original value, corrected value and basis. Original values are retained of record.
Definitions
- Observation
- A single price for one commodity, market, date and source.
- Series
- Prices for one commodity, grade, location and tenor, recorded over time.
- Symbol
- The permanent five-field identifier of a series: product, commodity, grade, location, tenor.
- Standard trade unit
- The customary wholesale unit (bag, crate, container) and its weight in kilograms.
- Market
- A physical market or GCX delivery centre, identified by a two-letter location code.
- Grade
- The quality specification priced: 0 ungraded, 1–4 GCX grades.
- Basis market
- The reference location against which a series is priced.
- Tenor
- The window or delivery month a value covers: weekly, monthly, spot or a named delivery month.
- Median
- The middle value of a tenor’s observations (50th percentile).
- Observation count
- The number of observations behind a published value.
- Archive series
- A series constructed from historical records.
- Assessment series
- A series set by Birkdal from current observations, each week or month.
- Calculated series
- Derived solely from other published values, e.g. an inter-market spread.
Symbology
Each series carries a permanent five-element symbol.
AProductAssessment.
WMCommodityGCX code: white maize.
0GradeUngraded.
TCLocationTechiman open market.
WTenorWeekly window.
SProductSpread.
WM.0.TC.WFirst legWhite maize, ungraded, Techiman, weekly.
WM.0.KU.WSecond legSame, Kumasi. Techiman–Kumasi differential.
Product
| Code | Product | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A | Assessment | A.WM.0.TC.W |
| F | Forward supply contract | F.WM.1.TA.03 |
| I | Index (multi-market composite) | I.WM.0.NG.SP |
| S | Spread (difference or ratio of two published prices) | S.WM.0.TC.W/SOY.0.TC.W |
Grade
| Code | Grade | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Ungraded | Open wholesale markets |
| 1–4 | GCX grades 1–4 | GCX delivery centres |
Tenor
| Code | Tenor | Example |
|---|---|---|
| W | Weekly window | A.WM.0.TC.W |
| M | Monthly window | A.WM.0.TC.M |
| SP | Spot | I.WM.0.NG.SP |
| 01–12 | Delivery month (03 = March) | F.WM.1.TA.03 |
Location
One code set covers open markets and GCX delivery centres. Where both exist, grade distinguishes them: 0 for the open market, 1–4 for the warehouse.