Novel and Magnanimous Ukraine has 20 MMT of grain that need to be exported over the next three months before the next crop comes off the fields and needs a place to be stored. Without access to its ports, its current export capacity is 1.5 MMT/month. With hoped-for production this summer of an additional 30-40 MMT of commodities, there is a lot of food trying to squeeze through a rickety, old, land-based transportation network with conflicting standards. The EU proposed this week the creation of “solidarity lanes” whereby governing authorities would coordinate efforts to remove bottlenecks to Ukraine’s exports. On the one hand, boosting Ukrainian exports will lower EU farmer returns. But on the other it will reduce the le...

TAGS – Europe, North America, Russia, Macroeconomics