Explore the significance of measuring wheat by bushels, a foundational unit in agriculture, to understand its impact on pricing, logistics, and global food security.

Interactive chart of historical daily wheat prices back to 1975. The price shown is in U.S. Dollars per bushel.

Wheat fell to 516.75 USd/Bu on August 1, 2025, down 1.24% from the previous day. Over the past month, Wheat's price has fallen 8.38%, and is down 4.13% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Wheat - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Global price of Wheat (PWHEAMTUSDM) from Jan 1990 to Jun 2025 about wheat, World, and price.

The monthly average price for normal wheat in Egypt amounted to 22.05 Egyptian pounds (0.71 U.S. dollars) per kilogram as of May 2023. During the period reviewed, the price was the highest ever recorded and increased slightly compared to the previous month, registering a growth of almost 1.9 percent. In November 2019, the average price dropped by one Egyptian pound and stayed constant until May 2020 before fluctuating and increasing in general. The previous relative stability in wheat prices was caused by the extensive involvement of the Egyptian government in all parts of the wheat value chain.   

A major crop for the Egyptians     

Grains constitute Egypt's most important crop group, with wheat as the most important grain of all. In 2021, the country produced nine million metric tons of the crop. Yet Egyptians consumed more than twice that number. The grain is fundamental to the Egyptian population's food staple. In order to meet a demand that is higher than the local production, the country imports the majority of its wheat. In fact, Egypt has held its position as the largest wheat importer globally for years.

Several shocks to the Egyptian grain market     

The increases in the crop's price since September 2021 were a result of several reasons. The increases in the global average price of cereals, as well as crops affected by weather conditions in major export nations were among the main causes. Furthermore, the Russia-Ukraine war has severe implications on the wheat supply globally and in Egypt. Both countries are leading wheat import partners of Egypt, aggregating 85 percent of the country's wheat imports in 2020. As of the same year, the volume of wheat imported from Russia stood at 14 million metric tons.

The United States is the leading consumer of corn worldwide. In 2023/2024, the U.S. consumed about 12 billion bushels of corn. The EU consumed about 12.04 billion bushels of corn in that year. Corn production in the U.S. Corn for grain makes up about a 27.5 percent share of all U.S. crop area harvested in 2022, meaning that corn has the second largest crop area in the United States. By contrast, corn for silage only makes up a two percent share of the total U.S. crop area. In 2022, approximately 13.7 billion bushels of corn for grain were produced in the United States. The vast majority of corn grown in the United States is enhanced with biotechnology. Corn utilization in the U.S. Though it is a popular and widely available vegetable in the United States, most of the corn grown in the United States is processed into ethanol, used as animal feed, or used to manufacture high fructose corn syrup. Of the 20 billion metric bushels of corn utilized in the United States in 2020/2021, about five billion metric bushels went to the production of ethanol and other by-products. In 2021, the average American consumed 4.3 pounds of fresh sweet corn, a decrease from about 9.2 pounds of sweet corn in 2010.

In 2024, the retail price of long-grain, uncooked white rice stood at **** U.S. dollars per pound. In 2008, rice prices rose to record highs, from ** to ** U.S. cents, as global trade restrictions were put in place, causing many large importers to panic buy rice. U.S. rice industry In the United States, about *** million acres of rice were planted and harvested in 2021. The top rice-producing states that year were Arkansas, California, Louisiana, among others. Arkansas was the leading state by far, producing over ** million cwt (centrum weight) of rice in 2021. Leading rice producers worldwide Within the 2019/2020 period, India and China were the top rice-producing countries by far, based on the area harvested. India harvested a milled rice area of approximately ** and a half million hectares, while China’s area amounted to some ** million hectares. In terms of production, however, China produced a higher volume of milled rice than India within the same crop year: China produced close to *** million metric tons of rice, while India’s figures reached an estimated *** million tons.