I think less of an export issue but mass collectivization all across USSR. My g-grandfather was sent to Siberia in 1932 for refusing to give up his cow to collective farm. That's one good farmer family less to produce. Now multiply it by one million and you get a famine on unimaginable scale.
Sure, the reason they did the collectivization beyond the ideology is so they could then control that production and channel it towards the uses they desired.
Total production was expected to go down. The regime was very well aware of that. But their control over that production was increased exponentially.
And considering the industrialization, a lot of that went into exports where it was exchanged for industrial goods.
Sorry for your g-grandfather, must have been a horrible time. Its insane that back then they considered anybody a 'wealthy farmer' who had like 1-2 cows.
