This infographic, designed and produced by our graphic designer, Catherine Doutey, is based on data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. It allows us to see which were the main wheat exporting countries in 2020, but also where this cereal is going. Wheat from Russia and Ukraine – the first and fifth largest exporting countries respectively – mainly feeds Africa and the Middle East. It is therefore the countries of these regions that are most threatened by the current war. But they are not the only ones.
Several European countries also source Russian wheat, such as Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Greece and Italy. And some also feed from the Ukrainian granary: 9.14% of the wheat purchased by Spain in 2020 comes from Ukraine, and some 2.14% of wheat imports from Italy too.
Asia, and in particular Central Asia, is also supplied with Russian and Ukrainian wheat. But for China, the situation is not immediately dramatic: Beijing is absolutely not dependent on these two countries, and market tensions are only likely to affect it indirectly. Indeed, it is mainly from Canada, the United States, France, but also from Australia that China buys this cereal.