and production of rice by the soviets increased rapidly between 1960 1980 however consumption peaked at almost 3 million tons in has remained below 2 since then imports soviet union have declined response to declining country although a net exporter china its 1985 may exceed 1 metric 1989 chinese policy sets retail prices world levels provide low cost food urban workers yet this discourages farmers from producing puts pressure on foreign exchange earnings difficulty meeting domestic demand unless policies are changed developing countries import about 70 percent while share group total relatively constant there been major changes market shares individual regions early s african middle eastern their asian fallen several factors responsible for these 1970 rapid income growth urbanization caused
