Is Russia the emerging global ‘breadbasket’?

Its rise to the top group of global wheat exporters, the abundance of abandoned land, assumed yield gaps and the apparent ‘success’ of agroholdings, have nurtured expectations of Russia becoming a global ‘breadbasket’. It is argued here that becoming a global breadbasket is hindered by substantial costs of re-cultivation abandoned land, management and financial problems of megafarms and agroholdings, lack of infrastructure for exports and increased domestic demand for feed grains, as input for the meat sector. Furthermore, as Russian wheat production is extremely volatile it might increase global price volatility, rather than contributing to global food security.