How many other buyers do they have though? The real issue in things like this is which party will break down first, the buyers that need that food, or the suppliers that want the gold. Of course you could go with a plan C and annex the damn food suppliers, but of course that is not always possible.
Far as I can tell, FEI has several realms that operate with food deficits or run so close to the supply that any bad weather results in starvation. Probably not on the level of D'Hara but I know Arcaea has been trying to buy food from pretty much any realm they can.
An exceptionally good harvest in those realms means a minor surplus, though, while in D'Hara is still means major deficits. That's the difference.
And considering that D'Hara's current policy is *buy everything*, it sure is a seller's market, though mind you it's my job to control this situation. Hence why D'Hara stepped in the south's war, after all, to protect the eventual exporter that Aurvandil will become and prevent Madina from increasing it's own internal demand for food by the annexation of Candiels. I wouldn't bother mediating the conflict if it wasn't for that, as the claims both realms brought forth before our involvement didn't move me much (didn't read the ones since yet).
