Chicago Board of Trade grain and soybean futures fell on Monday after favorable weekend rains in the U.S. Farm Belt and on expectations that approaching autumn harvests will boost supplies.
Rains across Iowa and Minnesota benefited crops, brokers said, after dryness threatened fields in parts of the Midwest earlier this summer.
Read MoreExporters sold $15.2 billion worth of American farm products to China in the first six months of 2021, raising the possibility of record sales this year, wrote economist David Widmar on Monday on the Agricultural Economic Insights blog. Sales are on pace to hit $33.7 billion, with some of the most active months for sales — during and after the fall harvest — still to come.
Read MoreAs the courts continue to uphold the state of California from imposing its production standards on livestock producers not only in the state, but nationwide, a handful of senators are stepping up in hopes of limiting taking their own actions to prevent individual states’ reign over others.
Senators Roger Marshall, M.D., R-Kan., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., introduced the Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act to prohibit state and local government from interfering with the production or manufacture of agricultural products in other states.
Read MoreAfter celebrating a year in force of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, it is no secret that relations between the U.S., Mexico and Canada continue to experience turmoil in dealing with trade tensions. Mexico’s ban on genetically modified crops is a major point of concern and continues to be discussed by trade and ag leaders.
Read MoreThe 12-state Hypoxia Task Force is asking Congress to continue supporting local efforts to reduce the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig co-chairs the task force and says they recently sent letters to relevant committees that provide funding for water quality improvements along the Mississippi River Basin.
“And that’s an important thing to do at the beginning of a new administration, when you’ve got new members of Congress, or new leadership within Congress. We’re here as states actively working, each state in the Basin has a nutrient reduction strategy of their own tailor-made for their state.”
Read MoreConcerns that the international shipping crisis will get worse for U.S. agricultural exports before it gets better are being raised again. Shipping container costs continue to rise and incentives to "dead-head" empty containers to Asia for quicker turnaround are at the root of these concerns.
Read MoreLate last week, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) released a report titled, “Early Months Suggest a Bright 2021 for United States Agricultural Exports.”
The FAS report stated that, “U.S. agricultural exports in the first four months (January – April) of 2021 were a record $59 billion, exceeding the previous record set in 2014 by nearly $5 billion.
Read MoreCongressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) delivered an official letter today to the U.S. State Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor calling for increased assistance in securing U.S. rice and other food shipments in Haiti. The request follows growing gang-related violence, unrest, and the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Read MoreLate last week, Reuters writer Karl Plume reported that, “Chinese state-owned importers bought at least eight cargo shipments of U.S. soybeans on Friday, or at least 480,000 tonnes, the country’s largest U.S. soybean purchases in 4-1/2 months, two U.S. traders familiar with the deals said.
Read MoreChina’s demand for meat and grain will continue, helping to fuel higher U.S. commodity prices, says Gregg Doud, chief agricultural trade negotiator during the Trump administration and current chief economist and vice president of global situational awareness at Aimpoint Research.
Read MoreContainer shortages have placed a heavy strain on agricultural exporters, leaving them without access to international markets and no guarantee that their product will be delivered on time, explains House chair of the subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., during Tuesday’s hearing titled, “Impacts of Shipping Container Shortages, Delays, and Increased Demand on the North American Supply Chain.”
Read MoreThe China Phase 1 deal is helping re-establish agricultural export trade flows to the once favored destination for U.S. commodities, according to a panel who presented at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Ag Advisory Marketing meeting on June 9.
During a panel discussion offering perspectives on the pandemic, recovery and importance, David Rossen, global hedging manager – cotton at Louis Dreyfus, says the trade war and tariffs created a situation where China looked to alternative suppliers of grain from South America or the Black Sea, and U.S. export values and overall volumes plummeted.
Read MoreThe U.S. Justice Department intervened in a large sale of grain elevators from one company to another, citing concerns about the impact on cash grain market competition.
Zen-Noh Grain Corp, a subsidiary of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations of Japan, reached a $300 million deal to buy 35 operating and 13 idled grain elevators from Bunge North America last April.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, the USDA released its Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade, a quarterly report from the Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and Economic Research Service (ERS). Today’s update includes highlights from the report, which was coordinated by Hui Jiang, Dylan Russell, and Adam Gerval.
The Outlook stated that, “U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year (FY) 2021 are projected at $164.0 billion, up $7.0 billion from the February forecast, led by increases in corn, soybeans, and livestock, poultry, and dairy products.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture’s quarterly agricultural trade forecast projects fiscal year 2021 U.S. farm exports at $164 billion – the highest total on record. This represents an increase of $28 billion, or 21%, from last fiscal year’s total, and a $7-billion increase from USDA’s previous FY 2021 forecast published in February. The annual export record of $152.3 billion was set in FY 2014.
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