Who has been hit?
Egypt and Brazil are the largest importers of wheat; the US is the largest exporter. Thirty years ago Egypt was self-sufficient in grain but it now imports 8m tonnes a year – the equivalent of half the UK’s total harvest – and livestock account for over a third of its total grain consumption. The shift in patterns of trade and in diets began in the 1970s, when the US poured food aid into the country in the form of subsidised grain and helped President Sadat’s regime through riots over shortages in 1974. Brazil, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, has become a major importer of wheat because it uses huge amounts of grain to feed intensively-reared poultry for export.
