Does traded product sell above or below the benchmark price?

For 19 of 38 commodities, the average export price implied by customs data (2024: world export value divided by world net weight) lands within 15% of the benchmark price for the same year. At the low end, manganese exports average 7% of its benchmark; at the high end, chicken averages 141%.

Unit value is a customs value at the border divided by the weight shipped, so it moves with the mix of grades, forms and destinations in a trade line. A benchmark is one grade at one place. When the two descriptions match, the ratio is a check on both numbers; when they do not, the ratio mostly measures the difference in product, which is why every row below carries the two descriptions and, where they visibly differ, a note drawn only from those descriptions. Only commodities whose benchmark is quoted per tonne or per kilogram are included: no density or grade conversion is invented for barrels, ounces or bushels. Click a heading to sort.

Export unit value against benchmark price, per tonne
Commodity	Customs line	Benchmark	Export unit value, per tonne	Benchmark, per tonne	Ratio	Why they may differ
Manganese	2602 Manganese ores and concentrates	Electrolytic manganese metal, CIF Northwest Europe	$147	$2,098	0.07	The line is ores and concentrates; the benchmark is electrolytic metal.
Lithium	283691 Lithium carbonate	Lithium metal, 99% battery grade	$11,707	$113,585	0.10	The line is lithium carbonate; the benchmark is lithium metal.
Cobalt	810520 Cobalt mattes, unwrought cobalt and powders	Cobalt, 99.8% minimum purity, LME spot	$6,560	$26,327	0.25	The line is mattes, unwrought cobalt and powders; the benchmark is 99.8% pure metal.
Copper	2603 Copper ores and concentrates	LME cash, grade A cathode	$2,431	$9,142	0.27	The line is ores and concentrates; the benchmark is refined cathode.
Oranges	080510 Oranges, fresh or dried	Mediterranean exporters, CIF France	$914	$2,260	0.40	The line is fresh or dried oranges from every exporter; the benchmark is a delivered (CIF) price in France.
Canola	1205 Rape or colza seeds	Rapeseed oil, crude, FOB Rotterdam	$518	$1,089	0.48	The line is rapeseed; the benchmark is crude rapeseed oil.
Bananas	0803 Bananas, including plantains, fresh or dried	Central and South America, US import	$646	$1,233	0.52	The line is every exporter's bananas and plantains; the benchmark is a delivered price in the US market.
Zinc	7901 Unwrought zinc	LME cash, special high grade	$1,455	$2,776	0.52	Same product on paper; the labels do not explain the gap.
Fishmeal	2301 Flours, meals and pellets of meat or fish, unfit for human consumption	Any origin, 64-65% protein, CIF Hamburg	$1,024	$1,699	0.60	The line is meals of meat or fish unfit for human consumption; the benchmark is 64-65% protein fishmeal, CIF Hamburg.
Phosphate fertilizers	3103 Mineral or chemical fertilizers, phosphatic	DAP, FOB US Gulf	$354	$564	0.63	The line is phosphatic fertilizers broadly; the benchmark is one product, DAP, FOB US Gulf.
Peanuts	1202 Groundnuts, not roasted	Groundnuts, CIF Europe	$1,337	$1,794	0.75	The benchmark is a delivered (CIF) price in Europe; the line is groundnuts from every exporter.
Coffee	090111 Coffee, not roasted, not decaffeinated (green coffee)	Arabica (ICE New York, other milds)	$4,363	$5,621	0.78	The line is all green coffee; the benchmark is arabica only.
Cocoa	1801 Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted	Cocoa (ICE New York and London average)	$5,764	$7,330	0.79	Same product on paper; the labels do not explain the gap.
Beef	0202 Meat of bovine animals, frozen	Australia/New Zealand, CIF US ports	$4,827	$5,933	0.81	The benchmark is Australian and New Zealand beef delivered to US ports; the line is all frozen bovine meat.
Palm kernel oil	151321 Crude palm kernel and babassu oil	Malaysia, CIF Rotterdam	$1,257	$1,412	0.89
Coal	2701 Coal; briquettes and similar solid fuels made from coal	Australian thermal, Newcastle	$126	$136	0.92
Tin	8001 Unwrought tin	LME cash	$28,138	$30,066	0.94
Coconut oil	1513 Coconut, palm kernel and babassu oil	Philippines/Indonesia, CIF Rotterdam	$1,424	$1,519	0.94
Sunflower oil	1512 Sunflower-seed, safflower or cotton-seed oil	Sunflower oil, EU port	$1,036	$1,060	0.98
Natural rubber	4001 Natural rubber, balata, gutta-percha, in primary forms or plates	TSR20, SGX/SICOM	$1,714	$1,753	0.98
Phosphate rock	2510 Natural calcium phosphates and phosphatic chalk	Morocco, 70% BPL, FOB Casablanca	$152	$153	1.00
Soybeans	1201 Soya beans	US, CIF Rotterdam	$467	$462	1.01
Potash	3104 Mineral or chemical fertilizers, potassic	Potassium chloride, standard grade, FOB Vancouver	$299	$295	1.01
Salmon	030214 Fresh or chilled Atlantic salmon and Danube salmon	Salmon, farmed Norwegian export price	$8,898	$8,775	1.01
Tobacco	2401 Unmanufactured tobacco and tobacco refuse	US import unit value, unmanufactured	$5,996	$5,899	1.02
Cotton	5201 Cotton, not carded or combed	Cotlook A Index, CFR Far East	$1,953	$1,911	1.02
Palm oil	1511 Palm oil and its fractions	Malaysia, CIF Northwest Europe	$1,002	$964	1.04
Aluminum	7601 Unwrought aluminium	LME cash, high grade	$2,585	$2,419	1.07
Urea	310210 Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution	Urea, FOB Middle East	$364	$338	1.08
Nickel	7502 Unwrought nickel	LME cash	$18,113	$16,814	1.08
Rice	1006 Rice	Thai 5% broken, Bangkok FOB	$637	$588	1.08
Wheat	1001 Wheat and meslin	US hard red winter, Gulf export	$296	$269	1.10
Lead	7801 Unwrought lead	LME cash	$2,309	$2,069	1.12
Lamb	0204 Meat of sheep or goats, fresh, chilled or frozen	New Zealand, frozen carcass, wholesale London	$6,164	$5,347	1.15	The benchmark is New Zealand carcasses wholesale in London; the line is all sheep and goat meat.
Tea	0902 Tea, whether or not flavoured	Average of three auctions	$3,701	$3,042	1.22	The line is all tea; the benchmark is an average of three auctions.
Corn	1005 Maize (corn)	US No. 2 yellow, Gulf export	$254	$191	1.33	The benchmark is the US Gulf export price; the line covers every exporter's maize.
Sugar	1701 Cane or beet sugar and chemically pure sucrose	World raw sugar (ISA daily price)	$607	$450	1.35	The line covers cane or beet sugar at any stage of refining; the benchmark is world raw sugar.
Chicken	0207 Meat and edible offal of poultry, fresh, chilled or frozen	US Gulf ports, broiler cuts	$2,068	$1,462	1.41	The benchmark is US Gulf broiler cuts; the line is all poultry meat from every exporter.

Rows close to 1.00 are the useful ones: where an HS line and a benchmark describe the same product, customs value per tonne and the benchmark agree to within a few percent, which is some evidence that the trade values and the price series are measuring the same thing. Zinc is the row to read with care: its two descriptions match, yet the ratio is 0.52, and nothing in the labels explains that, so treat it as an open data question rather than a finding. Compare with data reliability.

Trade: CEPII BACI, primary HS line, export flow, world totals for the latest year on file (2024; value in US dollars over net weight in tonnes). Prices: the primary benchmark series for each commodity (World Bank Pink Sheet or IMF), calendar-year mean of twelve monthly values, converted from per-kilogram to per-tonne where needed. Total export value of the 38 lines shown: $1066.6 billion.

More patterns

Concentration: How much of each commodity comes from one country?
Producer or exporter?: Is the biggest producer also the biggest seller abroad?
Prices in real terms: Which prices are records once inflation is removed?
Growth and decline: Whose output is rising or falling fastest?
Linked prices and seasons: Which prices move together, and which have a season?
Reserves and mining: Where are the deposits, and who digs them up?
Supply concentration: Which commodities depend on the fewest suppliers?
Land or yield?: Did output grow because farmers planted more or farmed better?
Supply shocks and prices: When world output falls, do prices rise?
Category price indices: How have energy, metals and food prices moved since 1960?
Drawdowns and volatility: How far do prices fall, and do they recover?
Stocks and prices: Are prices lower when the world holds more stock?
Which prices follow oil?: How closely does each commodity track crude oil?
How reliable is the data?: How much of world output rests on estimates?
Net exporters and importers: Who is a net seller and who a net buyer?
Country leaders: Which countries lead across the most commodities?
Export dependency: Which countries rely on one commodity?
Concentration over time: Has production spread out or narrowed?
Import dependency: Which countries buy most of a commodity from one supplier?
Supplier shifts: Who gained and lost importers' business?
Prices in other currencies: How much of a price move is the dollar?
Do prices lead each other?: Does one commodity price move before another?
Volatility over time: Are prices more volatile now than they used to be?
Seasonality: Which prices have a calendar-month pattern?
Price ratios: What does one commodity buy of another, and is that high or low?
El Niño and prices: Do El Niño and La Niña years move commodity prices?
Who consumes it: Which countries consume each commodity, and how much per person?
Self-sufficiency: Which large markets depend on imports, and which produce far more than they use?
Trade flows: Who sells each commodity to whom?

Every figure is computed from the same tables as the commodity pages. The full set is in patterns.json, and single facts from it appear each day on the facts page.