RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1931, Page 7

RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE

MACHINERY FROM AMERICA. Almost 75 per cent, of American exports of farm implements in 1931 have gone to Soviet Russia, according to an analysis of foreign trade statistics by Moody’s Investors Service. During the first six months of this year Russia took from the United States agricultural machinery valued at £7,647,000, or 74.3 per cent, of America’s entire foreign shipments, while Canada and Argentina, America’s best foreign customers in predepression years, together purchased less than 10 per cent, of the total. Moody’s characterises these figures as “startling evidence that Russia has, temporarily at'least, assumed complete dominance as a foreign outlet for America’s fifth most important export commodity.” America’s exports of farm implements to Russia in the first half of 1930 amounted to £6,210,000, and constituted about 41 per cent, of America’s shipments to that country. In the initial six months of the current year, agricultural machinery purchases by Russia were 54 per cent, of her aggregate imports from the United States, and enabled her to retain her position as America’s sixth best foreign customer for all merchandise.