Wheat, War and Export Economies

Prior to World War One, 42% of the globe's wheat was grown in Russia.

42%.

 Russian wheat warehouse, 1904

World War One ended that.

 Russian POWS, World War One.

With the war, the global means of transporting Russian wheat were severely disrupted.  Germany, which depended on Russian wheat, was at war with Russia.  The United Kingdom depended upon it too.  And Russia, whose wheat distribution system was designed for export, not internal consumption, had neither the means to export it or internally consume it, in spite of a war requiring the consumption of vast amounts of foodstuffs.

 

So the United States, Canada and Australia stepped into the breach.  In the case of the United States and Canada, that was often down through the endeavors of immigrants from Russia, who knew how to grow wheat on plains and steppes.

That sparked a wheat boom in Canada and the United States, as would be and actual wheat farmers flooded the prairie to grow wheat.  That cemented Canada, the US and Australia as major wheat producers, but it also set up the wheat growing belts of those countries for economic disaster during the Great Depression.  Russia, for its part, is still a major wheat producer, but it never returned to its former globally dominant status.