Robin Dand is now in the fifth decade of working in the commodities market. He specialised in the cocoa market and softs in general but also oversaw the administration of a LME Ring Dealing member. In softs, he has experience in cocoa, robusta coffee and sugar, both as an independent supervisor and in the contract development department at NYSE Liffe. His specific expertise lies with the physical delivery of soft commodities, including the quality issues of those goods. This experience also includes administering substantial cocoa bean stocks and their quality over a 15-year period when he was Shipping Manager of the International Cocoa Organisation. While working for NYSE Liffe he also devised a system to offer Exchange clients Pre-Shipment Grading for robusta coffee in Vietnam. As an independent authority on Cocoa and Robusta Coffee he runs Robin Dand Commodities Ltd. and while recently he has been working as Registrar for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Europe, overseeing the quality assessment and delivery cocoa for potential delivery against their cocoa futures, he is available to discuss issues on quality and storage requirements of soft commodities.*
Robin Dand has written two books on commodities; “Cocoa: a Shipper’s Guide” and “The International Cocoa Trade”* first published in 1991 and now in its third edition; as well as contributing to magazine articles. He is also a member of the Technical Committee of Cocoa Research UK.
Robin Dand has developed three tools for the analysis of cocoa beans. First is the Revelator™*, a hand-crafted tool produced by 3-D printing and specifically designed for the analysis of individual cocoa beans and which forms part of the second, the ‘Cocoa Grading Station’*; this a transportable strongbox containing all the calibrated equipment needed to conduct a complete cocoa bean analysis according to international standards anywhere where there is a flat level work-surface in still air. Third, prompted by potentially inaccurate and/or damaged laboratory samples being taken from an arbitration or grading sample of cocoa beans, Robin Dand has developed the ‘Exodus 14’*, a unique divider that easily provides a representative laboratory sample of not less than 600 grams with minimal damage to the sample material. All of these items are available through Robin Dand Commodities Ltd.
Apart from his family and soft commodities, his passions are Cricket and Olympic Trap Shooting at which he has represented England five times.
*Please contact Robin Dand at: robin@robindand.com to discuss issues faced with quality, storage or delivery of soft commodities or for more details of the items mentioned above.
Robin’s article:
