Where Helios Sources Its Supply and Trade Data
Helios combines trusted institutional data with our own proprietary research efforts to build a comprehensive, up-to-date view of global agricultural trade and supply.
Primary Institutional Sources
We rely on several well-established global datasets to form the backbone of our supply and trade intelligence, including:
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
Provides structured data on global production, harvested area, yield, imports, and exports
Often used for long-term baselines and crop-by-country breakdowns
WITS (World Integrated Trade Solution)
Offers detailed bilateral trade data, including commodity-level exports and imports between countries
Helps track real-world trade flows and market dependencies
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
Supplies frequent and high-quality data on crop production, stock levels, and trade forecasts
Especially strong for grains, oilseeds, and North American markets
These sources give us a clear view of supply fundamentals like stock levels, trade volumes, production trends, and yield outcomes.
Filling Gaps with Proprietary Research
In cases where public sources are outdated, incomplete, or unavailable for a specific crop or country, our team steps in to build the missing data ourselves.
We deploy full-time analysts to source, validate, and structure information from:
Government portals
Commodity exchange reports
Local news and agribusiness coverage
Research papers and academic sources
Market bulletins from industry groups and ministries of agriculture
This data is then:
Aggregated across sources
Mapped into Helios’s pricing and climate models
Tagged for transparency and revision history
This blended approach allows us to offer granular, crop-level supply and trade data, even in markets where institutional coverage is sparse.