“Coffee is the world’s second-most traded commodity after oil.” People are stating that “it’s not true. And the more we keep saying it is, the more we devalue the actual worth of the coffee industry.” with countless articles, websites and even “Starbucks even repeated it to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.” people are still believing it.
Why because it is soo easy to believe having the ” common worker spend $20 dollars a day on coffee” and “Americans consume about 400 millions of cups of coffee a day”. This is raising questions on how it’s not the number one traded commodity. Right?! But, the most defended arrangement with this belief is that there is a big difference in what you would so call a “commodity” and a “Product”.
How do you determine the difference from a “commodity” and a “Product”? Well, we are about to tell you.
What is a Product? From Dictionary.com the word “Product” means- a thing produced by labor. During the time when the Coffee Fruit was found in Ethiopia around 850 A.D, it was a snack used to help the villagers keep going. Causing them to produced labor it had a positive reaction and helped them keep producing labor in the act of caffeine.
What is a commodity? From Dictionary.com the word “commodity” means an article of trade or commerce, especially a product as distinguished from a service. In the United States, 80% of adults consume some kind of caffeine it’s hard to believe that this “trade or commerce” isn’t the number 1 or 2nd most traded commodity on earth.
From Quora.com it states the difference between a commodity and a product is… Commodities tend to be raw materials like corn, wheat, copper, crude oil, etc. Only commodities can be traded on “futures” markets because every unit is the same. Differentiated products tend to be finished products. People that produce commodities are referred to as “price takers.”
Let’s hope this answers your question, with a clear opinion if you think it’s the second most traded commodity on earth after oil.