Two Georgia Congressional officials, Senator Jon Osoff and Rep. Sanford Bishop, have introduced legislation that would extend crop loss payments to seasonal and perishable crop producers. Payments would be triggered when a crop’s national average price drops below its five-year average reference price due to imports. The legislators complain that “unfair” crop imports from Central and South America are hurting their growers. It is true that U.S. imports of fruit and vegetable products have been rising sharply. But they appear to be adding to the domestic supply rather than replacing it as overall demand continues to rise.
Their complaint and proposed solution are interesting from several standpoints:
The...
What You Need to Know Today: Day three of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour found corn yield potential below last year in both Illinois and western Iowa. Illinois corn yields averaged 184.2 bushels/acre, down from 199.6 bushels/acre last year and the 199.2 bushels/acre three-year average, while wester...
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) projects China’s chicken imports to drop by 33 percent this year and another 15 percent next year, as domestic production outpaces growing consumption and the country’s own exports surge. In its annual report on the Chinese poultry...
Key Takeaways: $13 billion in new U.S. dairy processing investment is moving across the sector, led by cheese ($3.2 billion), milk and cream ($2.9 billion), and yogurt and cultured dairy ($2.8 billion), with butter-powder capacity ($1.6 billion) and ice cream ($530 million) rounding out the bu...
