About Commodity Origins

Commodity Origins answers one question for every commodity on earth: where does it come from, who sells it, what does it cost, and why? It is a reference work, written in plain English for the person who typed "where does cocoa come from" or "why is coffee so expensive" into a search box or an assistant, and for students, journalists, small importers, procurement and supply-chain staff who need a citable answer fast.

What makes it different

• Every number on the site comes out of an open data pipeline with its source, unit and year attached. If a source is unavailable the page shows the last good snapshot and says so; it never shows a guess.
• The prose is written for this site from the data and from understanding of each market. Nothing is scraped or paraphrased from encyclopedias.
• Produced, exported, processed and consumed are always kept apart, because they answer different questions and point at different countries.
• It is built to be quoted: answers come first, facts carry their year and unit in the same sentence, and every page has a JSON and Markdown twin.

What it is not

It is not a trading terminal, a forecasting service or investment advice. Prices are monthly benchmark averages that lag the market. For bilateral trade flows use the Observatory of Economic Complexity; for daily prices use the exchanges.

Who

Commodity Origins is an independent publication maintained by a small team with a background in trade data and web publishing, alongside sister references on critical minerals and the LNG chain. Corrections and questions: hello@commodityorigins.com or the contact page.

Funding

The site is free to read. Advertising space is reserved in the layout but no ad network is live; if one is added it will run only after visitor consent, and the cookies page will say so. Affiliate links, if ever used, are disclosed on the page where they appear.