Besides soft commodity prices, there was also tumult from the collapse of big trading firm MF Global.

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Weather patterns, as anomalous as they may be, are only one of several reasons for rising soft commodity prices in recent months.

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"As more production is consumed domestically, it leaves less for exports, supporting international prices, " says Keith Flury, a soft-commodity analyst at Rabobank in London.

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We are starting to see an influx of money in the soft commodities and other areas of the commodity sector.

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In the 1980s and 1990s, the seasonal research was concentrated on the commodity markets, as many veteran commodity traders were familiar with seasonal tendencies in the grains, meats, and soft commodities.

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