Ag Headlines, Thursday October 8, 2015

USDA Releases Fact Sheets on TPP Benefits for Agriculture

USDA released a series of fact sheets that the federal agency says illustrate how the Trans-Pacific Partnership can boost the U.S. agriculture industry. Created by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, the fact sheets graphically depict how each state and individual commodities stand to benefit from increased agricultural trade with the 11 other TPP countries. Trade with these countries accounted for 42 percent of U.S. agricultural exports in 2014, contributing $63 billion to the U.S. economy, according to USDA. Fact sheets for each state are available online at fas dot usda dot gov (www.fas.usda.gov).

Nation's Ag Co-ops Set Records for Income and Revenue

United States farmers cooperatives posted record income and revenue in 2014.As part of USDA's observance of October as National Cooperative Month, Secretary Tom Vilsack previewed a USDA report to be released later this month that shows cooperatives earned $6.5 billion in net income and generated $246.7 billion in total revenue last year. Net income increased 16.5 percent while revenue rose 0.4 percent from 2013. Co-ops set records for income and revenue in 2014 for the fourth year in a row. Ag co-op employment increased 0.4 percent to 191,000 people in 2014. The number of full-time co-op employees dipped slightly, 0.4 percent while the number of part-time employees increased by 2 percent. The total number of ag cooperatives declined from 2,186 in 2013 to 2,106 last year, a drop of nearly 4 percent. Despite the decline, co-op memberships grew by 1 percent, to just under 2 million.

U.S. Meat Exports Post Disappointing August Figures

U.S. beef and pork exports struggled in August, remaining below year-ago levels, according to data released by USDA and the U.S. Meat Export Federation. August beef exports totaled 84,167 metric tons, down 18 percent from a year ago. Beef export value was down 24 percent to $498 million, the lowest in 18 months. For the first eight months of 2015, exports were down 11 percent in volume and dropped 5 percent in value to $4.31 billion.  For U.S. pork, August exports totaled 160,719 metric tons, down 1 percent from a year ago, while export value fell 19 percent to $429.8 million – the lowest monthly value in more than four years. The U.S. Meat Export Federation noted an already-tough global business climate became even more difficult when China’s devaluation of the yuan added pressure to the currencies of several key importing countries and large competitors against the U.S. dollar.

NAFB News