American, Canadian, Australian and Argentine farmers: watch out!

American, Canadian, Australian and Argentine farmers: watch out! ProAg, a Texas-based news site warns in article titled: “How Russia and Ukraine Took Over the Wheat Market.” Noting that Russia and Ukraine accounted for only 3% of the world trade in hard or ‘durum’ wheat in 2000, that share is growing to 42% in this marketing year. In a case of trading places, Russia overtook Ukraine by increasing its exports 70-fold since 2000, to 1.3 billion bushels projected for this year. Ukraine is increasing its durum exports 8.5 times to a projected 606 million bushels, within striking distance of the 620 million bushels projected for the US. Durum is largely used for making pasta.