GRAPHIC: U.S. share of world wheat production hit record low in 2022

Last year, U.S. exports of wheat dropped to a historic low, both in the number of bushels and in the country’s share of the international market. 

For the first time since the U.S. Department of Agriculture Environmental Research Service began recording U.S. wheat production and exports in its Wheat Data product in 1975, the U.S. share of world wheat exports dropped below 6% of the international market. 

Drought was a major factor in the low yields, according to the U.S. Wheat Associates. 

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a global leader in wheat production, wheat prices skyrocketed and experts predicted the war would send shockwaves through the agriculture industry. 

One year after the initiation of the war, prices have stabilized, and Ukrainian wheat exports were stronger than experts expected in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, according to FarmDoc Daily.