The production of wheat as a cultivated food crop began before recorded history. It was almost certainly the first crop of any kind to be traded between different population groups, probably as a primitive exchange for tools, animal skins and the like. Wheat was also probably the first bulk agricultural commodity to be transported by vessel across the sea (undoubtedly the Mediterranean Sea) in what was the very beginning of what is now called world wheat trade. Although wheat is not nearly the largest agricultural crop grown in the world, the volume traded globally is larger than for any other. And arguably, the many different types and qualities of wheat combined with the multiple sources of supply make world wheat trade the most complex...

TAGS – Wheat, Black Sea, Europe, North America