Russian grain export - foreign trade operations for the sale of
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
, primarily
wheat grain
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeological ...
to other countries, a traditional item of export income for
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
for centuries, providing the Russian Federation in the 21st century with leadership among the main grain suppliers to the world market along with the
EU (2nd place 2019/20),
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
(3rd place),
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(4th place),
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
(5th place).
Political aspects
Historically, Russian
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
exports were preceded by wheat exports from the Black Sea
steppes
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
to
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
and
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
. The long existence of grain exports in this direction is associated with the peculiarities of the landscape of the Northern Black Sea region, which are extremely favorable for the growth of wheat.
Grain export of Russia for a long time had not only economic, but also significant external and internal political importance for the country. It became the subject of public discussion and political speculation in various historical periods of the country's life. Since wheat has been one of the main Russian export goods for a long time, the proceeds from its sale were often used for cross-financing of other sectors of the economy, primarily industry.
At the same time, the average yield
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
in the
risky farming zone
Risky may refer to:
* ''Risky'' (album), by B'z, or the title song, 1990
* "Risky", a song by Davido from ''A Good Time
''A Good Time'' is the second studio album by Nigerian singer Davido. It was released on November 22, 2019, through Davido ...
(80% of the Russian territory) is low: self-three instead of self-six, self-seven in Western and Southern Europe.
Due to the difference in natural and geographical conditions in Eastern Europe, the aggregate of the most necessary needs of an individual was significantly greater than in Western Europe, and the conditions for their satisfaction are much more difficult and worse, noted the author of the book "Great Russian Plowman"
L.V. Milov.
[ Therefore, the volume of the surplus product of grain production was always much less, and with the need of landowners to receive incomes comparable to incomes in Western European societies, they obviously gave rise to the catch phrase attributed to the Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire Vyshnegradskiy "we are undernourished, but we will take out!".
]
Historical background
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
grain exports
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
grain exports
International grain trade
The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...
by the USSR was handled by the state monopoly corporation Exportkhleb.
Russian Federation grain exports
State participation
After the USSR liquidation, the Russian state did not set itself the explicit task of participating in grain exports, however, quite early it tried to enter the grain market with the officially declared goals of supporting domestic producers and food security
Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...
, ensuring public food purchases and organizing markets. The latter also meant the grain trade market, including for export. Work in this direction has been consistently delegated by the state to a number of organizational successive structures:
* In October 1994, for these purposes, the Federal Food Corporation was created under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation. The tasks assigned to it were not implemented in any full measure. On the fact of embezzlement of funds allocated by the state for the operation of the company, the General Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case.FSUE
A unitary enterprise (russian: унитарное предприятие) is a government-owned corporation in Russia and some other post-Soviet states. Unitary enterprises are business entities that have no ownership rights to the assets that th ...
was reorganized into OJSC "Agency for Food Market Regulation".
* In 2009, OJSC changed its name to OJSC "United Grain Company
United Grain Company (russian: Объединенная зерновая компания) is a Russian grain trading company based in Moscow and established in 2007. The company conducts grain procurement activities in Russia, and manages exports ...
". Subsequently, the state carried out a partial privatization of the company, retaining a controlling stake - 50% plus one share.
World grain market conjuncture
Russian grain exports/imports structure
Logistics - storage and transport
References
{{Reflist
Grain trade
Foreign trade of Russia
Agriculture in Russia