8. Wheat

In FY2024, 791 million tonnes of wheat was produced in the world. (We just finished coffee notes, at ~10 million annual tonnes).

Wheat is one of the key cereal produced in the world. Corn (maize), wheat and rice (paddy) are the three key cereal grains grown. As a category, cereals are largest. But between sugar cane, corn, wheat and rice, they constitue half of the world production in terms of billion tonnes. Corn used to be similar levels as wheat but over the last 20-30 years, it has grown significantly given its usage in ethanol, and animal feed. 

Wheat is produced primarily for human consumption.

Here is a pictorial snapshpot of wheat production:

China is the largest producer with 140 million tonnes. 

Following shows the production over the last 10 years:

Here following is the price chart for wheat in USD per bushel. Now a bushel of wheat is 60 pounds of wheat (or ~27.2 kgs). So almost 36.75 bushels make a tonne of wheat.

At the moment it is at USD 6.44 per bushel. It touched a high of USD 12.09 in March 2022. Or ~$236 for 1 metric tonne of wheat. Or the industry size of 791 million tonnes is close to USD 190 billion in value.

    

World Wheat Trade

Since 2000, nearly 90 percent of world wheat exports were accounted for by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and the former Soviet Union (including the 3 major wheat exporters Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan). Prior to 2000, these exporters combined to represent 95 percent or more of world wheat exports.

Although a handful of nations dominate wheat exports, there are numerous wheat-importing countries. Most wheat is imported by developing countries that have limited wheat production potential. Wheat is a staple food in many low- and middle-income countries. Rising populations in various parts of the world combined with strong economic growth, increase the demand for both milling-quality and feed wheat. Most of these countries have limited abilities to expand wheat production, which increases the global demand for wheat imports. The largest growth markets for wheat imports include Africa—both North (Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco) and Sub-Saharan (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan)—the Middle East (Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam).

Wheat is one of the most exported cereals in the world:

Wheat is the most consumed cereal in China and India. Though China and India are big wheat producers, still, India sometimes imports wheat.  China is the largest importer of wheat in the world. Egypt and Indonesia are other large importers.

A look at the global agricultural production:

In terms of land usage, perhaps worth considering these two charts side by side, hectare usage and tonnage. (Just to highlight that different crops yield differently - wheat is the seed outcome, sugarcane - the stem itself. So the comparison across categories needs to be considered accordingly - To consider value in dollars)