Abstract
The major agricultural countries of Eurasia (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) have become increasingly important for world agriculture, mainly as a large grain-exporting region. However, Russia is also a large agricultural and food importer, especially of livestock products. The rise in grain exports marks a reversal of the region’s status during the Soviet period as a major grain importer. This chapter examines the development of the Eurasian livestock and grain sectors since these countries began their transition from planned to market economies, and also provides an outlook. The key element in the relationship between the two sectors is livestock producers’ demand for animal feed, which reduces the grain surpluses available for export. The major changes in the region’s agricultural trade since the Soviet period appear to be consistent with its underlying cost-competitiveness, or comparative advantage, vis-à-vis world agricultural markets.
The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and may not be attributed to the Economic Research Service or the United States Department of Agriculture.
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Liefert, W.M., Liefert, O. (2017). The Development of the Eurasian Livestock and Grain Economies. In: Gomez y Paloma, S., Mary, S., Langrell, S., Ciaian, P. (eds) The Eurasian Wheat Belt and Food Security. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33239-0_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33239-0_14
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