Our introduction to international grain trade came in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. At that time most U.S. grain exports were under U.S. aid programs such as PL 480 that allowed the recipient governments, which had little access to dollars or other “hard” currencies, to pay for the grain in their own local currency or through long term loans under concessional terms including well below market interest rates.  Regular recipients would hold tenders often for large volumes of wheat or corn through their embassies or special purchasing offices.   In those days the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) owned seemingly endless supplies of wheat and corn as a result of defaults by farmers against their non-recou...