But Russia went into the drought with silos overflowing from bumper crops last year and the year before — the payoff from a policy of privatizing collective farms to attract investment — so the country will be able to meet its own needs with tons left over for export.
Today India harvests about 70m tons of wheat grain a year, more than enough for self-sufficiency in an ever-expanding population, with some left over for export.
In fact, so copious are Japanese savings that there is also plenty of money left over for export, year after year.
Yet, despite the Ministry of Fisheries' claim that whale "tastes delicious and is very healthy", and despite the low prices at which Norway's modest catch is sold, it still has whalemeat left over for export.
That encourages domestic consumption, leaving little for export.
With the Saudi population growing and becoming more prosperous, domestic consumption of oil is rising, leaving less for export.
Such homegrown demand doesn't leave much for export to the UK, but it's worth checking out craft beer bars such as the Euston Tap and Bristol's Small Bar for St Patrick's Day specials, or even flying to Dublin, which is a mere hop, skip and Ryanair bump over the Irish Sea.
Today, processed foods are in theory allowed to leave Gaza for export abroad "via the Kerem Shalom Crossing in accordance with approval from the Ministry of Health and subject to security check directives at the crossing," said a spokesperson for the Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) in an email to me in August.
"This is important to the Palestinian economy because we will not be permanently dependent on foreign aid," said Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian planning minister, who expects gas deposits here to supply all local electricity needs within three years, with a lot left over for exports.
"There is absolutely no scope left for any kind of misuse or pilferage or illegal export of any substance.
