Alla Korotkikh

• Occupation: Senior Researcher
• Affiliation: Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies, RAS
  
• Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

The growing number of population and rising incomes, especially in developing countries, the exceptional role of grain as a food and feed resource, and the broader range of grain use, on the one hand, and limited land resources, climate change, and frequent droughts, on the other hand, are creating conditions for accelerated grain exports throughout the world. Grain is being exported by 83 countries, with only eight largest grain-producing countries led by the United States accounting for 80 percent of such exports. The hands-down world leader in grain exports in the recent past, the United States is losing ground today under the pressure of heightened competition from Russia and Ukraine, which have successfully been tapping into the world grain market lately, as well as due to increased grain exports from the EU, Argentina, and Brazil. The U.S. government efforts aimed at encouraging grain exports through a number of financial, agricultural extension, logistics, and information support programs do not seem to yield the desired results. Moreover, the new administration’s protectionist foreign policy has already led to a U.S. trade confrontation with the EU and China, the largest importers of American grain and grain products, and the imposition of relevant customs duties by those countries.