Most of the major wheat producing countries around the world have had very good growing conditions through the entire season. Countries like the U.S., Australia, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan are expecting record yields during harvest. Russia is expecting its biggest wheat harvest in history despite having a much lower number of acres devoted to the crop than it has since the 1970’s. That historic output combined with some of the cheapest wheat in the world in the Black Sea region has Russia poised to become the top wheat exporter at 30 million tons in the 2016-2017 marketing year. Russia would take the top spot from the European Union, which has been hit hard in the western part of the continent by bad weather this year. That’s expected to lower both the quality and quantity of their wheat harvest. Russia has been steadily gaining on the EU in wheat export market share over the last three years. The gains by Russia and the European Union are coming mostly at the expense of the United States, which has seen its share of the wheat market steadily moving lower in recent years.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.