Bad weather during 2012 caused havoc to global crop production and we fear this will continue to play an unwanted role during the 2013 planting and growing season. The US soybean ending stock, which improved slightly ultimo 2012, is still precariously tight at a nine-year low. This tightness leaves the price of new crop soybeans, illustrated by the January 2014 contract on Chicago Board of Trade futures, exposed to any new weather disruptions, either in the US or South America (which is now the world’s largest producing region) or in China (the world’s largest consumer and biggest importer). Increased demand for biofuel, in this case soybean oil to cover biodiesel mandates, will also play its part in exposing the price to spikes should worries about supply resurface. Speculative investors, who reduced their soy sector exposure by two-thirds towards the end of 2012, will be ready to re-enter and this combination of technical and fundamental buying could potentially push the price higher by as much as 50 percent.