Faro Club – 35th Main Meeting| Live @ Eataly Roma

For the first leg of this year’s FARO journey, the Club landed at Eataly, in Rome.

Two intense days that opened with the Lecture of Excellence by the sparkling Oscar Farinetti, host for the occasion. Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti does not like what French ethnologist and anthropologist Marc Augé called ‘non-places’. Instead, he loves ‘places’ and the authentic life that pulsates and flows there, which is why we like to imagine that few places in the world attract him as much as this Roman neighbourhood of Garbatella, where he has successfully inaugurated his new creature on Italian soil, the exclusive location of this stage.

This was followed by a view on the world economy by Dr. Arrigo Sadun, President of TLSG, International Advisors, who outlined the current situation and prospects. “The global economic situation is improving, and for months the fundamentals have been showing concrete progress, far from random. In order to analyse them, one has to focus on two extreme scenarios. The US one on the one hand and the Italian one on the other, passing through Europe and illustrating only partly optimistic views,’ Sadun began.

In the afternoon, there was a panel discussion on ‘The impact of global economic trends on industrial, food and energy commodities’. Liam Fenton, Grains and Dairy Commodity Expert FCStone Europe, Paolo Kauffmann, CEO Kauffmann&Sons, Edward Meir, Senior Metal Expert INTL FCStone Inc, Marco Rocco, Director of Supply&Pricing-Power and Gas E.ON Energia Spa, and Arrigo Sadun discussed and followed each other. As scripted, it fell to the CEO of Kauffmann&Sons Paolo Kauffmann to open the proceedings of a discussion panel that saw the participation of a parterre de roi of speakers more numerous than in the recent past.

At the end of the first day’s work, it was time for a splendid visit to Eataly and a networking dinner. At the Ristorante Italia, where the figurative art of Amedeo Modigliani meets Italian cuisine in its biodiversity, the restaurant’s brilliant young chef delighted diners with the ‘Little Tour of Italy’ menu.

The CEO of Kauffmann&Sons repeatedly recalled how after at least a decade spent arm in arm the Standard & Poor’s and Crb indices began to travel different paths. “After the first disconnects highlighted at the Genoa FARO in the middle of last year,” said Kauffmann, “and later at the autumn FARO at Brembo, they are now splitting further apart. This was the incipit of the proceedings on the second day of FARO, which opened as usual with the Internarket Analysis.

Then it was time to step into the ring: four discussion and matching tables followed one after the other to compare operators from the same market on the problems, solutions adopted and tools used. The protagonists are raw materials, industrial and foodstuffs, as usual coordinated by members of the FARO Scientific Committee.

The perfect end to the event is the Raw Materials Outlook session. Inevitably at the forefront are the Non-Ferrous and Steels, exhibited by Edward Meir, who is on the staff of INTL FCStone’s New York divisions and who about 12 months ago had predicted for 2013 a substantial calmness of the markets in the balance between bear and bull. And who, at the start of spring, was able to see the far from flat calm of the markets under which turbulence lurks. Closing the two-day event, two more outstanding Outlooks: Andrea Guarneri, Analyst and Trader Kommodities Partners Sa and Liam Fenton, dealt with food commodities, the focus of this Roman FARO.

Two intense days in a magical setting, of comparison, growth and exchange. An important baggage, to take with you for the next leg of the journey.