Users of Zepol’s TradeIQ™ tool experience benefits in a variety of ways; from competitive intelligence to sourcing new suppliers overseas. In addition, many see the benefit in how TradeIQ™ can generate sales leads in a timely manner. For example, subscribers can identify prospects who import the types of products they sell, manufacture, or market. In addition, transportation companies can find new prospects based on geography, shipment volume, and seasonal trends. Learn how Zepol can help your company increase quality leads by watching this short video.

In this fast-paced environment that we live in, for some of us, coffee is essential to get us going in the morning. However, according to a CNN article, the price of our morning coffee is increasing, and quickly. In the graph below you can see that the price of importing coffee has increased and is at its highest cost since January 2009. The cost of importing coffee from South America reached $5.06/kg in March of this year, a 64% increase from March 2010, and 89% increase from March 2009.

Whether the higher costs are related to importing more green coffee that is more valuable or higher gas prices, hopefully, for all of us coffee drinkers, we will see a reduction in the near future and we will be able to enjoy buying our morning coffee.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its Merchandise Trade data numbers on May 11th for March 2011. The Merchandise Trade balance widened from a deficit of $47 billion in February to a deficit of $54.9 billion in March. Both imports and exports hit record highs for the year, up 18% and 19% respectively from March 2010.

Below is an in-depth breakdown of the U.S. Census Merchandise Trade data. This month we have highlighted 3 interesting items that we found while looking at March's data; here are the highlights:

1. Weaker Dollar
2. Oil Prices Rise
3. Trade Relations with China

Click here for Zepol's U.S. Census Merchandise Trade Data Update for March 2011