What Construction Can Learn from Energy and Agriculture
Construction pricing still relies on fixed assumptions. Energy and agriculture show how benchmarks and risk tools create stability, certainty, and better decisions.
1 Dec 2025
Construction is a global industry, but when it comes to pricing risk, it remains behind other sectors.
Energy and agriculture have long accepted that prices move, and that pretending otherwise creates instability, disputes, and poor decisions.
Instead of relying on fixed assumptions, these sectors use benchmarks, index-linked contracts, and risk management tools to absorb volatility and keep projects moving.
These tools haven’t just made pricing fairer.
They’ve made entire markets more efficient.
Construction now faces the same pressures: long programmes, thin margins, volatile inputs, and fixed commercial commitments.
It’s time to learn from sectors that have already solved this problem.
What energy gets right
Energy markets rely on widely accepted benchmarks for oil, gas, and power.
Buyers and sellers agree to price contracts against these indices, adjusting only for location, quality, or delivery method.
Once pricing is indexed, risk tools such as swaps can be added to fix exposure, without changing supply arrangements.
This allows energy companies to:
Protect budgets
Reduce shocks
Make long-term investment decisions with confidence
What agriculture gets right
Agriculture faces constant uncertainty from weather, seasons, and global demand.
Farmers and processors use price benchmarks and forward contracts to manage future price risk.
This provides:
More stable income for producers
More reliable pricing for buyers
Greater confidence across the supply chain
What construction can learn
Construction doesn’t need new inventions.
It needs adoption.
The lessons are clear:
Use benchmarks to create transparency
Standardise pricing mechanisms where possible
Manage risk separately from delivery
Stop relying solely on contingency and hope
The foundations already exist.
Indices, cost references, and contract mechanisms are in place.
What’s missing is a shift in mindset.
Conclusion
In energy and agriculture, price risk management isn’t optional.
It’s part of how business is done.
As construction projects get larger and more complex, the same approach becomes essential.
Borrowing this playbook isn’t financial innovation.
It’s commercial maturity.