2022 Ag Exports Reach Record Value
Micheal Clements
News Service Editor, NAFB
photo credit: Lance Cheung, USDA // CC0
The value of 2022 agricultural exports beat the record set in 2021, but some volumes declined. Micheal Clements shares more on the final trade data for 2022.
Clements: The past year represented a record for the value of U.S. agricultural exports. Veronica Nigh, American Farm Bureau Federation Senior Economist, explains the final trade data for 2022.
Nigh: When the 2021 values came out, we were all super excited and wondered if we could ever top that. But in 2022, U.S. ag exports blew previous records out of the water. We reached over $196 billion in U.S. ag exports in 2022, which is an increase by value of 11 percent. Now, the story changes a little bit when we go to the volume side, we've actually saw a decrease of six percent by volume.
Clements: Nigh says there were some distinct differences between commodities.
Nigh: In soybeans, we saw that 26 percent increase in value, but by volume, experts only increased by eight percent. Now for some products like rice, we saw a 27 percent decline in export volumes; corn had an export volume reduction of 16 percent, and wheat, because of those high prices around the world, a decline in volume of 13 percent.
Clements: Nigh adds trade increased faster to developing countries than developed countries.
Nigh: In 2022, the trend of the U.S. having faster increases in sales to developing countries continued. So, relative to 2021, we had an increase of over 12 percent in U.S. ag exports by value to developing countries. Meanwhile, our exports to developed countries also increased but at a slower pace of nine percent.
Clements: Micheal Clements, Washington.
