Milk tops the world’s most valuable food commodities, ahead of rice and pork

Main points

• Milk leads with a production value of $379 billion
• Rice and pork complete the global top three
• Animal products take four of the top eight places

Milk was the world's most valuable food commodity by gross production value in 2024, ahead of rice, pork and beef, according to figures drawn from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's FAOSTAT database.

The ranking puts milk at about $379 billion, followed by rice at $362 billion and pork at $355 billion. Beef ranks fourth at $306 billion, while maize — labelled as corn in the graphic — is the highest-ranked crop after rice, at $270 billion.

Chicken follows at $264 billion, ahead of wheat at $209 billion and eggs at $157 billion. Soybeans, valued at $142 billion, and tomatoes at $136 billion complete the top 10.

The figures underline the economic weight of livestock products. Milk, pork, beef, chicken and eggs all appear among the top eight commodities.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

Premier League dominates summer transfer spending as clubs set new record

FAO production data also show the enormous physical scale behind those values. Global milk production reached 985 million tonnes in 2024, including 797 million tonnes of cow's milk. World meat production reached 374 million tonnes, with chicken, pig and cattle meat the three most-produced meat categories. Egg production reached about 100 million tonnes.

Further down the ranking, potatoes are valued at $122 billion, apples at $112 billion, grapes at $97 billion and sugar cane at $96 billion. Tea leaves, cucumbers and buffalo milk each exceed $75 billion, while bananas and cassava are both valued at about $52 billion.

At the bottom of the top 40 are beans at $34 billion, eggplants at $31 billion, strawberries at $29 billion, barley at $27 billion and spinach at $26 billion.

The ranking does not show which foods are produced in the largest quantities or generate the most retail sales.

FAOSTAT calculates the value of agricultural production using production quantities and prices at the farm gate — essentially the value of commodities when they leave the farm, before the additional value from processing, transport, wholesale and retail.

This means a commodity produced in smaller quantities can rank highly if its producer price is relatively high, while a crop grown in enormous volumes can rank lower because of a lower price.