Canola and soybean oil price forecasts via neural networks

Forecasts of commodity prices are vital issues to market participants and policy-makers. Those of cooking section oil are of no exception, considering its importance as one of main food resources. In the present study, we assess the forecast problem using weekly wholesale price indices of canola and soybean oil in China during January 1, 2010–January 3, 2020, by employing the non-linear auto-regressive neural network as the forecast tool. We evaluate forecast performance of different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons, and data splitting ratios in arriving at the final models for the two commodities, which are relatively simple and lead to accurate and stable results. Particularly, the model for the price index of canola oil generates relative root mean square errors of 2.66, 1.46, and 2.17% for training, validation, and testing, respectively, and the model for the price index of soybean oil generates relative root mean square errors of 2.33, 1.96, and 1.98% for training, validation, and testing, respectively. Through the analysis, we show usefulness of the neural network technique for commodity price forecasts. Our results might serve as technical forecasts on a standalone basis or be combined with other fundamental forecasts for perspectives of price trends and corresponding policy analysis.