Soft commodity

Agricultural commodities are raw materials that originate from agricultural production and are used by people for further applications of the food and feed area and as renewable resources. Not in this commodity group includes forestry produced raw materials, especially wood, as well as vegetable and fruit plants which are primarily intended for direct human consumption. The term agricultural commodities (also: soft commodities ) is used in the financial world as an umbrella term for the corresponding group of commodities.

The main applications of agricultural commodities are in the production of food and feed from time immemorial. Especially cereals such as rice, wheat, maize, millet, rye, oats, barley, and triticale, as well as root crops such as potato, sugar beet, sugar cane and cassava are used for this purpose. Also, oil crops such as rapeseed, peanut, oil palm and soy or vegetable oils obtained from them are important as agricultural commodities. In addition, renewable raw materials, which are grown on agricultural land. In addition to these, the supply of raw materials for purposes beyond the food and feed production, these are, for example, cotton, rubber, and grown for energy biomass crops ( miscanthus, fast-growing wood).