Cultural wheat comes from south-west Asia, the region known as the Fertile Crescent. Wheat was one of the first domesticated crops, cultivated it at the very beginning of the Neolithic revolution. It is safe to say that ancient people could use for food growing wild wheat. In the US, it was brought only in the early 18th century.
Wheat is classified in accordance with the season, and a gluten content grains by color. Thus, there is a winter and spring wheat. US winter wheat is sown from September to December and collected in July. According to the content of gluten it can be soft and hard. In the solid – a high content of protein in soft – starch. The color of the wheat grain is different on the red, white and yellow. Spring wheat is mainly attributable to the solid type, and winter – to soft.
Producers and consumers
The European Union is in first place in the world in wheat production. Next him – China and India. United States – the fourth largest producer in the world, but they are also a major exporter, representing almost 30% of world exports. Specializes in the cultivation of wheat states – Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. Extreme weather conditions such as drought in Russia and rains in Canada and in Europe, have caused disruptions in wheat production in 2010. Price increases have been resolved by introducing the Russian government ban on exports last summer. Wheat prices continue to be supported corn prices stable, but there are fears that the downward trend will continue production.
Wheat – the main product for the production of flour for bread, cakes, pasta, pasta, as well as it is used for the fermentation of alcohol. The husk, which is purified at threshing is called the bran. Its use in some products, but mostly it is used to feed livestock. Wheat itself is also used for animal feed and straw, which remains after the harvest goes to the mat for livestock and used as a roofing material. The grain of wheat is used as cattle feed in many areas where there is no corn or where it is more expensive than wheat seasonally. Globally, consumption of wheat for this purpose amounts to 15-20% of the total consumption. For this reason, the price of wheat is often supported by the price of corn.
Exchange
Futures and options on the wheat traded on the Chicago exchange (CBOT), at the Exchange Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE). In China, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange trades contracts for wheat with a high gluten content and hard winter wheat. Contracts for wheat are also traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, Turkish Derivatives Exchange, Mercado a Termino de Buenos Aires (MAT), EURONEXT, South African Futures Exchange, Budapest Commodity Exchange (BCE) and on the exchanges MCX and NCDEX. The exchange traded futures KCBT hard red winter wheat, the largest class of wheat produced in the United States. On MGE trades hard red spring wheat (it is the largest protein content). Elsewhere on the Chicago Stock Exchange presented futures for soft red winter wheat. Annual turnover in the wheat futures contracts for DCE Exchange in 2007 exceeded the figure on the CBOT exchange. Despite this, the size of the contract on the CBOT 12 times a futures contract on an exchange DCE.