The USDA has lowered its agriculture export predictions in the first forecast since February, but not all commodities are impacted.
According to the USDA’s chief economist, Rob Johansson, “U.S. exports of agricultural products are estimated, for fiscal 2020, at $136.5 billion, that’s down $3 billion from our estimate in February.”
This is still $1 billion dollars more than the 2019 year.
Johansson says that they still expect to see exports of meat, milk, and poultry amount to $32.4 billion dollars. Most of the declines are coming from bulk commodities, with soybeans accounting for two-thirds of the reduction.
“Due mainly to competitive Brazilian exports,” Johansson said, “they had a very good crop, but also because of the economic impacts of coronavirus.”
The USDA projects $130.2 billion dollars worth of imports resulting in a surplus of $6.3 billion dollars. That is just $700 dollars less than February’s projections, but still higher than 2019. Cotton, corn, and wheat together make up the other one-third of forecast reduction. Plus, exports to Thailand will fall by as much as 5-10 percent this year.