Commodities Risk Analysis and Veriground
Innovation In Finding Data
ABOUT COMMODITIES RISK ANALYSIS LC
40 Years of Experience and Expertise
EXCELLENCE IN COMMODITY PRICE RESEARCH
DATA IS ESSENTIAL. ORGANIZE, STORE, PROTECT, AND USE.
For over 40 years, the staff of Commodities Risk Analysis LC have published analysis of the markets for cocoa beans and derived products such as cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. The CRA Cocoa Report has become the confectionery industry’s most trusted and followed market analysis for cocoa producers, processors, traders, and users of cocoa and its products. Readers have called it the best report for any commodity.
CRA staff recognized early the need to collect all data that were useful or might become useful, investigate its characteristics, preserve it for when needed, and organize it for efficient retrieval. Wide ranging and careful data collection and maintenance have been a foundation of CRA’s success.
CRA is a neutral and independent service company. CRA does not trade commodities or related financial instruments in any form. Third parties have no ownership or other interest in CRA.
A Cocoa Legacy Trusted Worldwide
INNOVATION IN PROVIDING DATA TO CLIENTS
KNOWLEDGECHARTS™ FOR CLIENT ACCESS TO DATA AS NEEDED
CRA recognized that the Internet could make CRA’s data accessible to clients on their schedules and according to their needs. A years-long effort led to CRA’s KnowledgeCharts website. Users can find charts about cocoa and its products for almost any need. They can modify the charts to their specific need, share the charts with their clients in their own documents and presentations, add comments, and use the charts in myriad ways. They can download data behind the charts. The charts help CRA and others know that data in the CRA database is clean. CRA also now makes data in this database available via Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and continues to act on opportunities to incorporate other data into its database.
Although KnowledgeCharts is separate legal entity from CRA, it has the same ownership as CRA and is independent of all other individual and entities.
ABOUT VERIGROUND, LLC
Meet the Team
Father-son partners, Steven and Matthew Haws, have been collecting and studying weather data for decades to serve their clients in cocoa and other tropical agriculture industries. Steven Haws recognized early the connections between the El Niño/La Niña cycle and West African weather. This led him to emphasize weather knowledge throughout the course of his work at Commodities Risk Analysis (CRA). When Matthew Haws joined CRA, he led an effort to identify, collect and evaluate all sources of tropical weather data. Matthew’s work in the mobile phone industry provided the experience to recommend a solution for the lack of reliable, timely weather data for tropical crop areas. Their commitment, experience, and leadership now are making possible services that will help farmers and industries by providing concise, location-specific, weather forecasts, record keeping, and husbandry advice. They are providing these services through Veriground.
Jeff Haws
Senior Programmer
Ross Wilding
Master Builder
Garrick Walker
Developer
Aaron Hamilton
Tool Operator
Jerome Kouakou
Côte d'Ivoire Team Lead
Henry Zouzou
Côte d'Ivoire Install Team
Fonvon Soro
Côte d'Ivoire Install Team
Constantin Zogoué
Côte d'Ivoire Install Team
John Sanders
Ghana Team Lead
Philip Kwamena
Ghana Install Team
Earnest Boakye
Ghana Install Team
Nathaniel Debra
Ghana Install Team
Managing Member
Steven Haws
Managing member, Commodities Risk Analysis LC, KnowledgeCharts LLC, and Veriground LLC
Steven Haws studied economics at Brigham Young University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Commodities Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey in 1978 and took responsibility for advising clients of that hedge fund. His efforts to build databases and effective commodity reports began them. This led to the creation of the CRA Cocoa Report in 1995 and the databases that enable the report's detailed analysis of the markets for cocoa beans and products. Mr. Haws imagined and directed the development of the KnowledgeCharts website that provides current and historical data to clients of the CRA reports. Since 2013, Mr. Haws has participated in creating Veriground.
Managing Member
Matthew Haws
Managing member, Commodities Risk Analysis LC, KnowledgeCharts LLC, and Veriground LLC
Matthew Haws studied mechanical engineering and business development at Brigham Young University and graduated with master's degrees in each field. He joined the mobile phone division of Motorola in 2003 and left in 2010 to join his father at CRA. At CRA, Matthew first led an effort to identify, collect and evaluate all sources of tropical weather data, and then to keep the data current in CRA databases. Since 2013, he has been the lead designer and engineer of the Veriground weather station. During development, he has assumed responsibility not only for the station’s mechanical design, but also for its conceptual development, electrical design, battery chemistry management, and protection from environmental hazards.