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U.S. producers benefit from Ukraine-Russia war

An economist says the Ukraine-Russia war is affecting commodity markets, and U.S. farmers will benefit from it.

Stephen Nicholson with Rabobank says, “We have arable ground to produce the crops that the rest of the world needs.” He tells Brownfield if the war ended tomorrow, the United Nations has estimated that up to 25% of Ukraine’s productive farmland will not be available for planting anytime soon. “Because of mining, because of ammunition that is unexploded, trenches have been built, and then just the craters from the bombs and the toxicity that has been left behind in soils.”

Nicholson says farmers in the western hemisphere remain ready to grow what Ukraine can’t. “When you look at the fact that Brazil and the United States are the largest corn producers in the world and the most reliable corn producers, as far as production and the ability to ship, markets will find us and we’ll be back in play.”

Nicholson says Rabobank’s latest long-term forecast calls for more price volatility for U.S. farmers in the short term with higher prices in the long term.  He encourages farmers to be more strategic when selling their crops, taking cost of production and margin goals into account.