International Trade Arena is Becoming More Competitive

USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer talked about the state of the ag economy and the headwinds it faces in 2024. During his speech at the 100th Annual Ag Outlook Meeting, he said there are challenges ahead.

“We've seen a lot of growth in trade for agricultural commodities, for bulk agricultural commodities. Maybe the challenge is the fact that other countries have also stepped up and are producing more. So, our challenges our export share has declined. We've gotten more competition in the global market, but we need that trade to continue to grow.”

One of U.S. agriculture’s biggest challenges comes from South America.

“One of the examples here is that we have seen tremendous growth in soybean production in South America. Tremendous growth. When you think about Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, tremendous growth in production, and we can handle that production at a global level and support prices when Chinese demand was growing at more than four percent and up to eight percent a year. So, we have China in the market pulling large volumes of soybeans off the market. That demand has slowed. Who's going to pick up that demand as we get an additional six million metric tons a year from Brazil and two million metric tons from Argentina? Land is expanding. They're going to continue to grow.”