U.S. AGRICULTURAL TRADE UPDATE October 22, 1996 Approved by the World Agricultural Outlook Board ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. AGRICULTURAL TRADE UPDATE is published monthly by the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20005-4788. FAU-1096. Subscriptions to the printed version of this update are available from the ERS-NASS order desk. Call, toll-free, 1-800-999-6779 and ask for stock #FAU, $20/year. ERS-NASS accepts MasterCard and Visa. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary--August 1996 U.S. agricultural exports were $4.6 billion, 5 percent higher than August 1995. Cumulative exports for October 1995 through August 1996 reached $55.4 billion, 12 percent higher than a year earlier. Imports were $2.7 billion, 16 percent higher than August 1995, with a year-to-date total of $29.8 billion. The October 1995-August 1996 agricultural trade surplus was $25.6 billion, up 15 percent from a year earlier. Exports--Bulk exports reached $26.1 billion for the 1996 fiscal year-to-date. Wheat exports for August were nearly 4 million tons, the largest August wheat shipments since 1984. Shipments totaled 30.3 million tons from October 1995- August 1996, a 6-percent increase from the previous year. The value of August wheat exports climbed to $790 million, pushing the cumulative total for the fiscal year to $6.2 billion, a 43-percent increase over a year ago, largely a result of higher wheat prices. Latin America increased its imports for U.S. wheat more than other markets, with Mexico more than doubling its October-August imports from 600,000 tons in 1995 to 1.3 million tons in 1996. Similarly, U.S. wheat to South America increased from 1.7 million tons to 3.1 million tons. August corn exports fell to 2.8 million tons, down 1 million from July 1996. August 1995 shipments were 5.3 million tons. Year-to-date exports were 50 million tons, a 4-percent decrease from a year earlier. However, due to higher prices, the value of corn exports remained well ahead of last year, reaching $7.9 billion, a 37-percent increase. Soybean exports were 1.4 million tons, 13 percent higher than in August 1995. Cumulative shipments were 21.2 million tons, 2 percent less than a year ago. The value of soybeans, however, increased 24 percent to $6 billion. In August, Japan was the leading market importing 342,000 tons, followed by Mexico with 256,000 tons, surpassing the European Union with 232,000 tons. High-value products (HVP) remained ahead of bulk exports, reaching $29.2 billion. U.S. beef exports in August dropped to $197 million, a 20-percent decrease from August 1995. The August volume was down 10,000 tons from last year. The unit value of beef from October-August was 10 percent lower than the previous year. Year-to-date beef exports remained 5 percent ahead of the previous year at $2.4 billion. August sales to Japan were $119 million, up from $105 million in July but volume declined 3 percent to 26,000 tons. Poultry meat exports in August rose sharply from a year ago, from $169 million to $245 million. The year-to-date for poultry meat totaled $2.2 billion, a 26-percent increase over a year ago. August exports of fresh fruits reached $164 million a 9-percent increase from August 1995. Citrus exports remained lower from the previous year while noncitrus advanced ahead of last year. Year-to-date grape exports reached $228 million, a 20-percent increase from a year ago. Imports--U.S. agricultural imports in August rose slightly from July at $2.7 billion. Despite the higher volume of coffee imports, its value continued to move down, dropping to $209 million in August due to lower coffee prices. Year-to-date coffee imports stand at $2.7 billion, down 15 percent from a year earlier, while volume is up 19 percent at 1million tons. Imports of fresh vegetables fell in August from the previous month to $91 million, but the cumulative total remained higher from a year ago. (Mark Gehlhar, 202-501-8525) U.S. Trade Patterns Shift in South America Exports to South America totaled $2.4 billion through August of fiscal 1996. Colombia became the largest market, importing $566 million, which surpassed Brazil's $533 million. In the past 2 years, the composition of U.S. exports in South America has shifted away from high value products (HVP). The HVP share of U.S. exports dropped from 53.4 percent in fiscal 1994 to 45.8 percent in fiscal 1996. Much of the growth in U.S. bulk trade in South America has been from large increases in wheat exports to Colombia and Peru. While Colombia nearly doubled its imports from the United States, its share of HVP trade fell to 39 percent in 1996 from 53.6 percent in 1994. However, from 1994 to 1996 Brazil increased its share of HVP from 38.8 to 49.1 percent and Argentina increased its share from and 96.8 to 99.7 percent. END-OF-FILE