Putin, Russia and wheat

Farm and Ranch February 24, 2009 If you think wheat export competition from the Black Sea region is tough now, just wait. During a recent visit to the Pacific Northwest Jim Bower of Bower Trading discussed Vladimir Putin, Russia and wheat. Putin of course is no longer Russia’s president. He is prime minister. However, Putin is still viewed as the power behind the throne so to speak. And Jim Bower says just as Putin knows the value and power of energy, recall the recent cut off of natural gas to Europe, Putin also understands the power of Russian agriculture. Bower: “Putin is an intelligent guy. Ruthless! Tough! Very, very business oriented and maybe he does make mistakes but we saw he does have a handle on the country. He is trying to get that production up. We know they are trying to make improvements in agricultural production. Their output per acre is only about a third of what ours is. He knows that technology and innovation can bring that production back up. And of course there is a lot of acreage in the Former Soviet Union and in Ukraine and former satellite countries that is still available for production that is fallow right now. So farmland values have started to come up and I think Putin recognizes that production and that farmland is a tremendous asset for the country.� Bower also noted the recent efforts to create a soviet style grain trading company in Russia. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.