agricultural exports

The United States expects Europe to follow through on a promise to buy more U.S. soybeans, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday. At the same time, he said that America will not respect EU claims to the exclusive use of such food names as Parma ham or Roquefort cheese.

Two-thirds of the Trump tariff bailout of U.S. agriculture will be paid in cash to crop and livestock producers, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue over the weekend. Some $200 million of the aid will be spent on developing new export customers, Perdue told Reuters, and the rest would be used to purchase food for donation, to indirectly help other producers.

U.S. farmers and ranchers were blindsided by the Trump trade war, but they will adapt quickly to lower commodity prices and disruptions in the export market, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. “Farmers are smart,” he said, swatting down the idea that the White House will write another agriculture aid package after earmarking up to $12 billion for this year.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it will spend up to $12 billion on a one-time aid package to offset the impact of the tit-for-tat tariff war on the farm sector. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue described the move as a “short-term solution” that would give the president time to rebalance trade rules worldwide. Farm groups said they would prefer to see an end to the trade war.

For three decades, the cycle was predictable for agricultural bankers: Farmers would use money from the sale of crops harvested in the fall to pay down their debts during the winter. But this year broke the pattern. Farm debt increased during the first quarter, said the Federal Reserve in a report that pointed to trade disputes and burdensome crop stockpiles as the likely causes.

Agricultural trade is a tool for growth, not a weapon of diplomacy, said Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts in warning that U.S. tariffs against trade partners are endangering America’s reputation as a reliable source of food.

Senators signaled their strong dissatisfaction with President Trump’s policy of trade warfare on Wednesday, while Trump said, falsely, that “farmers have done poorly for 15 years,” and pledged to remove trade barriers so that U.S. exports flow “better than ever before.”

U.S. soybean exports will be down a quarter-billion bushels in the coming year due to steep Chinese tariffs on the oilseed, estimated the USDA on Thursday. In a boomerang effect of the U.S.-China trade war, Brazil would indisputably replace the United States as the world’s largest soybean grower as China scouts, without full success, for alternative soy suppliers.

In a video posted Monday on social media, the U.S. cattle industry predicted it would be shut out of the Chinese market and lose an estimated $70 million in beef sales this year due to retaliatory tariffs. Groups representing pork and dairy producers expressed similar concerns.

For Iowa farmer John Heisdorffer, the math is brutal in the U.S.-China tariff war: "You tax soybeans at 25 percent and you have serious damage to U.S. farmers." China, the No. 1 customer for U.S. farm exports, canceled purchases of nearly $140 million worth of U.S. soybeans just before the two countries imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's products. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said on Sunday the Trump administration was working on "a number of new free-trade agreements," but China "will be a much longer haul."

Commodity prices are falling in the wake of President Trump’s threat of round after round of tariffs on China, and on Tuesday, groups representing wheat and soybean growers warned that the White House is making trouble for U.S. agriculture with its aggressive tactics.

The Farm Belt will get walloped if China retaliates in equal measure against Washington's $50 billion in announced tariffs on Chinese goods, said economists at Midwestern universities. Ohio State researchers said farmers in the Buckeye State could see a 50 percent drop in farm income while Iowa State's Chad Hart said producers in the Hawkeye State could lose up to $624 million this year, depending on how long the tariffs are in place and if other customers are found.

Due to bad weather, Russia's wheat crop will be one-fifth smaller than last year. But Russia will remain the No. 1 wheat exporter in the world while the EU pushes the United States into third place, according to a USDA forecast released Tuesday. In its monthly WASDE report, the USDA said farm-gate prices for this year's U.S. corn, wheat and soybean crops would be the highest since the commodity slump began early this decade.