The world’s top shipper is proving a fierce competitor as this year’s bumper crop drives even more exports. As it makes inroads into the European Union’s traditional markets, Russia’s selling point is simple: good quality wheat at prices that many rivals just can’t beat, writes bloomberg.com.
In 2017, Russia increased exports by 20%, and EU supplies to world markets fell by 25%. "Everyone is watching Russia right now," said Miroslaw Marciniak, a director at InfoGrain, a Warsaw-based adviser. "In the past few years, Russia has been more and more aggressively fighting for new markets. The EU right now has one big problem - what to do with its grains surplus."
In a world overflowing with grains, low-cost emerging markets from Russia to Latin America are challenging well-established suppliers such as the U.S. and the EU. Russia, once home to a failing Soviet farm industry dependent on imports, has in recent years emerged as a wheat superpower, notes Bloomberg.
