Key trends in global trade in products of the agro-industrial complex (agro-industrial complex) and the development of agrological studies

In this section, we will consider the current trends and structure of international trade, significant and landmark events in world exports and imports, as well as the situation with Russian foreign trade of products of the agro-industrial complex. Global exports of agricultural products in 2021 updated the record, increasing by 16.6%, to $1.89 trillion. For ten presenters exporting countries in 2021 accounted for almost 48% of world food exports, in the first twenty —   more than 68%.

The vast majority of the world's leading food exporters have shown positive trends of export supplies in recent years, and Russia has the highest annual growth rates. In the period 2018-2021. Russia increased the export supply of food in total by 43%, up to $37.1 billion, which allowed the country to enter the top 20 global exporters of agricultural products.

For comparison: the United States, the world's largest food supplier, increased exports by 21.6% over the same period, to $176.5 billion.

Global trade in agro-industrial products is highly fragmented, and the share of any category of the agro-industrial complex products does not exceed 9%. The most significant positions in the structure of global food trade in 2021 were meat and meat offal, which accounted to 8.0% of global exports of the agro-industrial complex, or $153.5 billion in value terms (the share decreased from 8.3% in 2020). In addition, significant shares in the total global exports of the agro-industrial complex accounted for the supply of grain crops ($152.8 billion), fat and fat products ($149.5 billion), fruits and nuts ($146.1 billion).

The agro-industrial complex is one of the few industries that have managed to maintain positive trade trends in a pandemic. The lock-down restrictions imposed by the vast majority of countries, which led to disruptions in global supply chains, to a lesser extent affected the volume of global trade in agro-industrial products.

According to data in 2021, the leader in world volumes of agro-industrial exports in value terms was the United States, which in 2021 accounted for 9.3% of global agricultural exports. In addition to the United States, significant exports were recorded by the EU countries (the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) specializing in the export of food with high added value, as well as to Brazil and China.

Although the United States hold leading positions in the volume of exports of agricultural products, the country is traditionally a net importer of food, ranking second in the ranking of world importers of agricultural products after China. 

A similar situation is recorded in China's foreign trade: the growth of national production cannot fully satisfy the growing demand for food, which leads to a faster increase in import supplies.

Russia plays an important role in ensuring global food security, maintaining leadership in the supply of selected products to the world market. In 2020, the gradual growth of export supplies allowed Russia to become a net exporter of food for the first time and consolidate this status in 2021-2022, further increasing the trade balance.

Despite various restraining factors and external pressure recorded in 2022, the country regularly supplies food for export, thereby continuing to increase presence on world markets. In 2022, among the top 20 world exporters, Russia showed the largest increase in the volume of exports of agricultural products over the past 10 years —  2.5 times.

In 2022, Russia accounted for 2.1% of global exports of agricultural products. In comparison: in 2017, the country accounted for 1.4% of global food exports.

In addition to Russia, the list of net food exporting countries in 2021 included Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand, India, Turkey, EU countries (the Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland), Chile, Ecuador and Peru. China, the USA, Kazakhstan, the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as most countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa region in 2021 remained extremely dependent on food imports for various reasons: from adverse climatic factors to weak development of the food industry.