large increases in imports or reductions in net exports of rice wheat and maize result in higher world market prices implying that other countries producers and consumers help to reduce though certainly not eliminate the suffering that a south asian drought would cause in practice the share of global production of the major staples entering international trade is rather low figure when an unusual event takes place such as the us drought in the summer of the sharp reduction in production is translated into an even sharper fall in exports or increase in imports putting immense pressure on markets where only a fraction of production is traded internationally