Davos 2012: Unilever chief Polman warns of higher food prices and urges curbs on commodity speculation

By Jennifer Clapp, Professor in the Environment and Resource Studies Department and CIGI Chair in Global Environmental Governance, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Canada. Cross posted from Triple Crisis NGOs have stepped up their critique of large investment banks’ involvement in agricultural commodity derivatives markets in recent months. Now, it appears that the banks are starting to fight back.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Consumer goods giant Unilever sees scope for more deals on the Russian market, a year after its purchase of cosmetics maker Kalina doubled the group's non-food business in the country, its chief executive officer told Reuters. "There is no reason why in the future there might not be other opportunities for companies like ours to get together with some of the emerging Russian companies," Paul Polman said in a telephone interview. But the maker of brands such as Dove and Knorr expects most of its Russian growth to be organic, said Polman. ...

Unilever Plc (UL) Q4 2010 Earnings Conference Call February 3, 2011 3:30 AM ET Executives Paul Polman – CEO Jean-Marc Huet – CFO James Allison – Head, IR and M&A Pier Luigi Sigismondi – Chief Supply Chain Officer Dave Lewis – President, The Americas Mike Polk – President of the Categories Analysts Michael Styde [ph] - Morgan Stanley

Unilever (UL) Q4 2012 Earnings Call January 23, 2013 3:30 am ET Executives James Allison Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman - Chief Executive Officer and Director Analysts Christopher Wickham - Oriel Securities Ltd., Research Division Christopher Wickham - Matrix Group Limited, Research Division