An Analysis of Russian Wheat Grain Export as a Tool in Its Contemporary Foreign Policy

Abstract

There is growing evidence that Russian wheat exports are positioned as a strategic tool of influence to foster State interests geopolitically. This research studies the Russian wheat industry under the leadership of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin through the lens of the state’s three-factor domestic policy emphasizing food self-sufficiency, national security, and export growth. Russia evolved to become the largest single wheat grain exporter globally capable of significant market power. Russia’s wheat currently meets over eighty percent of the importing consumption needs of the Middle East and North Africa at prices typically thirty percent below world market price. This research outlines Russia’s supply chain for wheat export, including an analysis of the state grain trading company United Grain Corporation (UGC). Examples of Russia’s explicit use of wheat grain export in its foreign policy are detailed, including an examination of a series of wheat market interventions directed by the State. The analysis of Russian wheat policies in a geopolitical context is a neglected area of research and should be considered as an inherent component of the multidimensional challenges facing the United States and its relations with petrochemical exporting nations.