Soft commodities, or softs, are commodities such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soybean, fruit and livestock. The term generally refers to commodities that are grown, rather than mined; the latter (such as oil, copper and gold) are known as hard commodities.

What are soft hard commodities?

Commodities are often split into two broad categories: hard and soft commodities. Hard commodities include natural resources that must be mined or extracted—such as gold, rubber, and oil, whereas soft commodities are agricultural products or livestock—such as corn, wheat, coffee, sugar, soybeans, and pork.

What is the main use of soft commodities?

Soft commodities play a major part in the futures market. They are used both by farmers wishing to lock-in the future prices of their crops and by speculative investors seeking a profit. Softs offer many advantages such as the vast quantity of commodities to be traded.