Why Geneva

The Geneva area commodity cluster has its origins in the 15th century. In the 20th century the region has seen a significant growth benefiting from historic actors such as Nestlé (1839) and André & Cie (1877). In the 1920s, grain trading houses established themselves in the area, ostensibly to be closer to their major client, Nestlé. In the forties, Switzerland became the ideal location for business in Europe: the Swiss franc being, with the US dollar, one of the two currencies freely exchanged. Subsidiaries of US companies concentrated here throughout the 1940s and ‘50s. During the Cold War period, Switzerland offered a neutral place to establish relationships and accelerate administrative procedures for trade in the Eastern Bloc.

In the 1960s, Egyptian cotton merchants looking to move their operations out of Nasser’s Egypt came to Geneva. With the first oil crisis (1973-1974), a number of oil traders joined them. In the 1990s, it was the turn of the Russian oil companies to set up offices in the area. Thanks to an extremely specialised expertise, an international openness, a political and economic stability and strong competences in the financing of commodity trading and shipping, the Swiss Commodity Hub has today a leading position in international commodity trade

Commodity Trading: a key economic sector for Switzerland

An economy in itself in Switzerland

10% of Geneva GDP - 3.6% of Swiss GDP
8'000 direct employments in Geneva - 12'000 in Switzerland
400 companies in Geneva - 600 in Switzerland

Geneva Trading HUB

Worldwide leader in commodity trade finance, inspection and certification.

N.1 in Coffee, Sugar, Oil, Grains and Oilseeds Commodities

22% of commodity worldwide shipping initiated from Switzerland.