Export commodities are substances or goods that are produced in one country, then sold and shipped to other countries. Exporting commodities allows a country with an excess supply of a good or product, such as a natural resource found or grown in that country, to deliver that product to a country that is unable to produce the same item or unable to produce enough of it. Investors are often interested in helping to finance a company’s efforts to export commodities because it allows a company to sell to more customers, which often means additional profits.

Commodities are goods that are essentially the same no matter where they are produced. Some common different types of commodities include things like minerals, precious stones and agricultural products. Some manufactured goods, such as silicon microchips, are also considered commodities since the fundamental product is basically the same no matter who makes it. This is not to say that there aren't differences between products, but rather that as the ability to produce products of a certain quality has become more widespread, the products that are produced have become relatively equivalent. Manufactured products that vary widely in quality, price and design are not commodities.

One product that has become a type of export commodity is medicine, such as insulin manufactured by a pharmaceutical company in the United States and exported to countries that have no means of producing the drug. Metals and other materials needed by a company in another country for its manufacturing processes are other examples of export commodities. Natural resources that are abundant in one country are often exported to countries where such resources are scarce. For example, French Polynesia exports cultured pearls, coconut products, mother-of-pearl, vanilla and shark meat, which are all natural resources there, to countries that do not have ready access to those goods. Some natural resources that are exported are used as fuel, food or building materials, such as the oil and petroleum products exported from Sudan and the coal and iron ore exported from Australia.

Investing in export commodities is, like all investments, a gamble. It’s not always possible for one to determine what will be the hot new thing that every consumer must have. Today’s trend might be old news tomorrow.