Russia produced 91.5 million tons of wheat last year. The year before that, the total was 92 million tons. That’s two years of near-record crops. “This year not so much,” said Tanner Ehmke, lead economist, CoBank. “They had widespread drought; they had widespread freezes in May. Private estimates put the current crop around 80 million (tons) Economist Tanner Ehmke says these are two years of near-record wheat crops. Russia has a big drop in production and it is important because they are the biggest wheat exporter.” Once the Northern Hemisphere wheat crop is in the bin, Ehmke believes the market will realize global stocks are very tight. “We think there is a fair amount of volatility coming for wheat so the drop in prices we’ve seen recently, I think is going to be short-lived.” With the global demand for wheat, Ehmke said the U.S. will see a stronger export market unfold.
