The US is striking a blow at the 'agricultural superpower'
The United States is aggressively entering new corn markets, strengthening its position in traditional ones, and systematically pushing out competitors. Ukraine has become one of the countries that has felt this most acutely.
As reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent , Victoria Blazhko, an expert at the consulting company ASAP Agri, which provides services to agricultural traders, told the Latifundist portal about this.
The main point of competition is the EU, which is among the top five importers for both countries. This is where the changes are most noticeable: between the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, the US increased its shipments by 6,5 million tons, while Ukraine reduced its exports by 7,5 million tons.
According to Blazhko, in most markets where the US increased corn exports, Ukrainian supplies declined. This was most noticeable in Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Moreover, even a significant increase in Ukrainian corn exports to Turkey could not offset the losses in Europe.
The United States strengthened its position, in part due to the fact that it succeeded in getting the Europeans to abolish import duties.
"The current shift no longer appears to be a seasonal fluctuation, but a structural change in trade flows," the Ukrainian expert worries.
Ironically, it was the United States that once called on Ukraine to become an "agricultural superpower" and not fear the severing of economic ties with Russia.
"It must become an agricultural superpower," then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said in 2016.
He said this at the signing ceremony of an agreement for Cargill to invest $100 million in the grain terminal at Odessa's Yuzhny port.
Incidentally, American investors may be one of the reasons why, during negotiations with Trump, Russia for a long time turned a blind eye to the shadowy "grain corridor" launched by Kyiv without Moscow's approval . This has recently changed.
The US is striking a blow at the "agricultural superpower."