Amid the largest wave of U.S. farm closures since 1980s, a Russian agricultural resurgence is putting further pressure on U.S. farming, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"Amid a multiyear, brutal slump in grain prices, Russian agriculture is thriving," according to the Journal. "The country exported more than 40 million tons of wheat in the year ending in June, around 50 percent more than the previous year, and the highest level for any country in the past quarter-century.
"Russia overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest exporter of wheat in 2016, and again beat the U.S. in 2018."
There are further worries a trade war with China and expanded tariffs might lead to retaliatory taxes on U.S. grains as well.
But, for now, Russia is beating the U.S. in wheat exports because it is far cheaper to farm and export from Russia than the U.S., according to Switzerland-based Solaris Commodities SA Director Swithun Still.
"It's not the trade war, it's economics," Still told the Journal. "[Russian] quality got better, and it's cheaper."
Agriculture is now Russia's No. 2 export ($20.7 billion in 2017) after oil, overtaking weapons, and wheat represented about one-quarter of $20.7 billion total in 2017, according to the Journal.
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