Help from the smarties please?

I'm curious and I don't understand...

Review this graph at the Washington Post about imports and exports of grain around the world.

Why is it...why do countries export products that they are running short on?

Take for example South Asia (which appears to be India on the graph).

They are importing 7.9 metric tons of grain. YET...they are importing 7.5 metric tons of grain. Wouldn't it just make more sense to import the difference of .4 metric tons?

I'm sure that maybe they are exporting wheat and importing rice, or something like that? But in a global economic climate like we're in now, wouldn't it make more sense to balance it out a little more...keep it "local."

Or are the exports bringing in so much extra money that the countries can't afford not to export and it's just better for their economy to import the cheap stuff?

And then you look at North America...obviously there are surpluses there. Good. And we should be exporting to countries that have the stronger need...but again, let's say we keep what we need...then we don't need to import.

I guess by my logic I wouldn't have my tasty jasmine rice or other tasty goodies in my pantry...

I wasn't an economics major for a reason...