Ag Exports Down From This Time Last Year

For the first five months of the fiscal year, October through February, the value of U.S. agricultural exports is running about 5% below the same time period of a year ago, at $62 billion.  Trade analyst Bryce Cook said that it's mostly because of a 17% drop in bulk product exports.

"Other competitor countries have made inroads with some of our destination markets. When you have countries like Brazil, which has had record years of production in good like soy beans, then it comes at a cost, potentially, of cutting the amount of exports that the U.S. can sell abroad."

And Cook said just having total exports running 5% below a year ago, which he notes is not too bad.

"Fiscal year 2017 was the third-largest export year in value terms. So, running below that, while is not positive news, you're comparing it to year that was overall pretty well off."

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