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US is preparing to destroy a key Russian industry
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Sergey Savchuk

[RIA] Based on the results of the past two years, even the most biased Western propagandists admit that sanctions against the Russian fuel and energy complex have failed. They created a number of significant difficulties on export routes, but the main task - the destruction of the domestic economy with the accompanying collapse of the defense complex - was not even approximately realized. The Russian economy in 2023 has become number one in Europe, unceremoniously removing the lame duck of Germany from its pedestal.

At the same time, it would be extremely naive to think that the other side will admit defeat and stop inventing ways to kill our state base in one way or another. The US government, desperate to destroy Russian oil supply chains, decided to flank and strike from an unexpected direction.

According to the overseas press, the White House is working on a program of massive foreign investment in agricultural production. The main goal, as in the case of energy resources, is to reduce the share of Russian farmers and fertilizer producers on the world market, to minimize export revenue in this area and, if possible, to occupy our niche.

If someone has a hat-inducing mood, then it is advisable to put them in the closet. Let us recall that in two years Washington has practically eliminated the export of our hydrocarbons to the European Union, although this was a well-functioning scheme that had worked perfectly since the times of the Soviet Union and was extremely beneficial for all participants without exception.

Against the backdrop of endless publications on the topic of natural gas and oil, whose quotes and transshipment volumes are tracked in real time, agricultural products have been relegated to a very distant place - and completely in vain. Because not all the inhabitants of the planet refuel their cars, but everyone without exception wants to eat every day.
Beautifully said.
It is quite difficult to analyze the global market for agro-industrial products, if only because the agricultural and parallel sectors, in comparison with the oil and gas sector, have a multiply larger product range in terms of both primary and processed products. But we will try to understand where the next meanness can come to us from and how real it is.

If the hydrocarbon market can be described in broad strokes, then in the sector of production and export of agricultural products the devil hides in certain areas and details.

For example, the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil and its by-products is Indonesia, which produced 46 million tons in 2022, exporting $17 billion worth of products abroad. The number one exporter of soybeans is the United States, which sells more than two billion bushels of beans abroad. By the way, during the first trade war, China, a key buyer, took advantage of this fact. Beijing cut off soybean imports for some time, which led a huge part of the American agricultural sector into a groggy state, and Washington sharply reduced the intensity of anti-Chinese rhetoric.

China grows more than 23 million tons of garlic, covering 80 percent of world trade. India is the absolute leader in rice cultivation; Indians export about 20 million tons alone. The Philippines, at $1.5 billion a year, has no rival in banana exports,
I thought there were issues with bananas — something about monoculture cultivation — and in a generation no child would know the taste of the things. Did I misunderstand?
Nigeria in the cocoa niche, Iran in the watermelon trade,
...watermelons — really??
and Brazil is ahead of everyone else in sugarcane exports.

Many will probably be surprised, but the tiny Netherlands earns almost $80 billion a year from the sale of flowers, seedlings, tomatoes and chili peppers and is one of the five largest world producers.
The Netherlands is a major farm products producer. That’s why they revolted when their government started passing laws to force them to stop producing greenhouse gasses. They’re a big Geert Wilders voting bloc, as I recall.
Our country totally dominates in the cultivation and export of wheat, as well as other grains. In 2022, domestic grain growers threshed 153.8 million tons of grain, 104.4 of which were wheat. Exports of more than 27 million tons have secured a niche for Russia of 20 percent of world trade.
How much of that is confiscated Ukrainian wheat? Ukraine was not only the heart of the Rus, but the breadbasket of Russia.
In general, the statistics of the Russian agricultural sector and specialized exports are extremely indicative.

By the end of the first year of the CBO, when domestic oil and gas traders were scrambling to find new supply channels, the agricultural sector rocketed upward, lending its overworked shoulder to the economy. Western analytical agencies state through clenched teeth that while the collective West was demonstrably fighting totalitarian oil and gas, Russian exports of agricultural products made a dizzying leap.

Let's go over the main numbers.

Total export earnings from the sale of agricultural products more than doubled. If in 2015 this figure was 17 billion, then by the end of 2022 it is already 41.6 billion dollars. In just a year, Russia moved from 20th to 17th place among the world's largest agricultural traders. In general terms, Russian exports grew by 12 percent, sales of grains by 18 percent, oils and vegetable fat products by 25 percent, meat by 23 percent, and prepared food by two percent. To be fair, it should be added that during the same period, supplies of fish and seafood went into minus by 12 percent, and dairy products fell by two percent.

To understand the overall picture, it should also be mentioned that the world’s main exporter was the United States, which at the end of the year sold $193 billion in food products, confidently ahead of Brazil with $135 billion. That is why Washington’s initiative should be taken extremely seriously, because the Americans achieved success in Europe, where the presence of their oil and gas was minimal.

In this case, Russia is almost five times inferior in core trade volumes, which, on the one hand, is comical, because the States are strenuously positioning themselves as a high-tech country, and not at all a soybean empire.
One is a growth industry, the other is a solid underpinning of the economy. These are not mutually exclusive — America has historically been all in on the freedom to choose, and for individuals to create new options when they don’t like what’s on the table.
On the other hand, in the last year alone, the Biden administration has driven more than fifty large factories producing nitrogen fertilizers in Europe to bankruptcy,
...eh? I thought that was the various European governments driving to fulfill their stupid, self-imposed greenhouse gas reduction mandates...
that is, the yield of European farmers this year is entirely in the hands of the United States. It is foolish to think that once the Europeans refused super-profitable gas contracts, they will show persistence in purchasing ammonium nitrate.

Time will tell where the American investment blow will be delivered. We can only hope that our farmers and exporters will understand the warning and will meet any dirty tricks fully armed.


Posted by: badanov 2024-01-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=689270