SatYield satellite crop forecasts for US and Brazil join Zema Global platform

Zema Global, which supplies data and analytics to energy, commodity and financial firms, has partnered with SatYield, a provider of satellite-driven crop intelligence, to give agricultural commodity market participants access to SatYield's in-season crop analytics through Zema's decisioning platform, PrecisionAg's Global Ag Tech Initiative reported.

Zema customers will be able to use SatYield data covering the US and Brazil: yield and production forecasts, planted and harvested area estimates, condition indicators, growth stage and phenology, harvest progress, weather impact indicators, and historical time series and backtesting data. SatYield combines satellite observations with biophysical crop modelling and AI to estimate acreage, yield, production, crop condition and harvest progress through the season.

The point is timing. Commodity markets can move a long way between official reporting dates as weather and crop conditions change, and SatYield says it has shown it can identify meaningful changes in acreage, yield and production during the season, ahead of final official estimates. Inside Zema, the satellite signal sits alongside the data traders already use, including USDA and WASDE reports, weather, exchange data and supply-and-demand figures.

"Commodity markets do not need more data. They need earlier, independent signals that help them understand how physical supply is changing before it becomes market consensus," said Gabby Nizri, cofounder and chief executive of SatYield. Eric Steimel, chief data officer at Zema Global, said customers could bring that signal into their models and "make faster, more informed decisions as markets become more complex".

The companies say the service is aimed mainly at hedge funds and agricultural commodity traders in markets such as soy and corn, and at energy traders following yields and production relevant to biofuels, for uses from production forecasting to trading strategy and risk management.

Photo: NASA Earth Observatory, Jesse Allen / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: PrecisionAg