By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — News of Russia’s wheat calamity has sent shock waves across the grain world. Russia is the world’s third-leading exporter of wheat, but may have trouble making good on contracts it has with many other countries.

Bad news for Russian wheat exports, however, may be good news for growers of corn and sorghum here in the United States.

“Russia will export just seven million tons of wheat the rest of this year and that nation will not be able to fulfill their contracts with other nations,” said Marri Carrow, U.S. Grains Council communications manager. “These voids in contracts must be fulfilled, and we believe the U.S. can be a major player in filling these voids.”

According to Carrow, countries such as Egypt and Argentina are looking at other grains to take the place of wheat.

“We’re already seeing Israel make purchases of sorghum from the U.S.,” she said. “The Red Sea area also has a shortage of sorghum feed crops.”

Tim Lust, CEO of the National Sorghum Producers, says the problems dealing with wheat is a plus for sorghum producers.

“First, it will benefit us because sorghum is not a GMO (genetically modified) grain,” Lust said. “As long as Europe maintains its restrictions, sorghum is one of those grains that can really move into Europe in large quantities. There’s strong potential for sorghum in these markets that have concerns about GMO traits.

“We continue to work with a lot of countries around the world to make sure they’re aware we have a lot of grain available and we’re ready to meet their needs. This is a good time for sorghum and corn producers.”

Indeed, says Paul Bertels, vice president of Production and Utilization at the National Corn Growers Assoc. “The USDA bumped up the export number to 100 million bushels between July and August,” he said, “and this was driven by the decrease in wheat production around the world. Here in the U.S. corn exports are going to go up.”

According to Bertels, problems with wheat are occurring in Germany and Poland as well as Russia.

“All of these occurrences are pushing prices of wheat up and this will help push the corn prices up as well,” he said.

Often in the mix when talking about wheat abroad is GMO wheat. At this time none is being grown anywhere in the world.
Plans to introduce GMO wheat in North America began in 2002 but were shelved in 2004; however, scientists are still exploring ways of improving wheat using genetic engineering.

According to Carrow, the European Union (EU) isn’t likely to act on GMO anytime soon.

“Two years ago the EU went through some infrastructure building and capacity building to beef up their food security, so even with the shortage of wheat we don’t feel the EU will be forgiving or importing GMO grain,” she said.

Wheat is extremely important in the world’s food supply. About 600 million tons are produced each year. That adds up to approximately 200 pounds for every person on Earth.