Commodity

From Open Risk Manual

Definition

Commodity. A basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type.

A commodity is a product or service. It may be produced by one or by many industries. Commodity output represents the total output of the product or service, regardless of the industry that produced it. If an industry and the commodity produced by the industry have the same name, the commodity is considered to be the primary product of that industry. Any other commodity produced by that industry is a secondary product of that industry.[1]

Commodities are most often used as inputs in the production of other goods or services. The quality of a given commodity may differ slightly, but it is essentially uniform across producers.

A commodity is a transportable good that may be exchanged. It may be one of a run from a production line, a unique item (Mona Lisa) or the material medium for a service (software in USB stick). This is the concept used for customs classifications.

A commodity is a raw material, e.g. foodstuff, metal ore or refined product, crude oil or oil product, for which there are normally liquid markets and which represent attractive collateral for the provision of finance.

See Also

References

  1. Concepts and Methods of the US Input-Output Accounts. K.J.Horowitz, M.A.Planting, 2009