The USDA says that agriculture has a bright spot in the economy, right now and looking ahead.
Starting with ag exports for the 2020 fiscal year, the agency says that they topped 2019. Ag exports trailed much of 2020, that is to be expected with a pandemic limiting global trade and hindering demand for biofuels.
In order to meet the projections, USDA economists said that September sales would have to be substantial and they were. They came in more than $2 billion dollars ahead of average putting the U.S. $400 million dollars ahead of last year’s total ag exports.
Bart Kenner with USDA says strong soy exports helped while corn lagged behind: “Corn was $8.2 billion dollars compared to $9 billion dollars in 2019, a decrease of 9 percent and that’s largely due to the unit price of corn. Volumes of corn were down 5 percent.”
USDA says that prices were down due to competition and low ethanol demand.
Looking ahead, USDA says that 2021 shows the economy rebounding at a record pace, that is as we overcome the coronavirus slow down.
The department predicts this will help boost commodity prices across the board. Inflation and interest should remain low, while gross domestic product could rise by 4 percent.
This would be the fastest economic expansion since the year 2000 which grew more than 4.1 percent.
The latest crop progress report is out. Corn, soybeans, and grain sorghum are at least 90 percent harvested. Cotton is at 61 percent and 78 percent of the peanut crop is out of the ground.
Most everything is ahead of the five year average pace.