Amur Oblast

Amur Oblast demonstrates source-sink dynamics at continental scale—a soybean monoculture that feeds China while starving its own processing industry. Sharing Russia's longest China border (1,250 kilometers), this Far Eastern region produces 40% of Russia's soybeans and over 70% of the Far East's output on 1.6 million hectares of fertile black soil. The trade relationship resembles nutrient flow in an ecosystem: raw biomass moves south, and everything else flows north.

The economic structure mirrors a plant's relationship with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria—symbiotic but potentially parasitic. With Heilongjiang province's insatiable demand next door, farmers export unprocessed soybeans for immediate profit. The region's only soybean-processing factory has been mothballed; it simply cannot compete with the export price. This is resource allocation responding to market signals rather than long-term industrial development. Heilongjiang-Russia trade reached 234 billion yuan ($32.2 billion) in 2024, an 11.2% increase year-on-year.

Three hydropower plants (with a fourth under construction) provide cheap energy that could power processing facilities—infrastructure going underutilized. The 2019 highway bridge between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe became "a symbol of China-Russia friendship" that processes 10 truckloads and 200 tonnes of goods daily. This agricultural free-trade zone locks in the pattern: soybeans out, manufactured goods and vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cabbage) in. The region's share of Russian soybean production has already fallen from dominance to 28% as other regions plant more—competitive pressure that may eventually force the diversification that profit signals currently discourage.