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Plants & Economics
Top 10

Banana (Musa spp.)
Due to increased consumer demand, more and more of the multibillion dollar banana industry is being sold under Fair Trade’s fairer terms.

Clove (Eugenia caryophyllata)
Throughout history, the country that has controlled the spice trade has been the richest and most powerful in the world – today, this is the United States.

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao)
In 1728, the first commercial manufacture of chocolate began in Bristol. Today, 5,000,000 tons of chocolate is made from 2,200,000 tons of cocoa beans.

Cotton (Gossypium barbadense)
The first factories were built to mill cotton in the 18th century, leading to the industrial revolution and the vast wealth of the Victorian era.

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
The sap of unripe seed pods of the poppy is the source of opium, morphine, codeine and heroin, the growth of which is central to countries such as Afghanistan.

Pine (Pinus spp.)
Pines are fast growing softwoods used as a source of wood pulp for papermaking, and are commercially among the most important species grown for timber.

Rice (Oryza sativa)
Rice is the staple food of over half the world’s population, and its domestication ranks as one of the most important developments in history.

Sugar cane (Saccharum spp.)
The introduction of sugar cane to the Caribbean in 1493 encouraged Europeans to emigrate, which destabilised the Old World sugar markets.

Tea (Thea bohea)
The tea industry is dominated by India, the largest producer and consumer globally, followed by China, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia.

Wheat (Triticum spp.)
Wheat was used as early as 6700 BC in flat cakes by Swiss lake dwellers and is today the second largest cereal crop grown and traded globally as a commodity.