News

Ag economist says U.S. losing market share with trade uncertainties

While NAFTA negotiating continues, an agricultural marketing specialist tells Brownfield she concerned about what has already happened to U.S. exports.

University of Wisconsin-River Falls professor Brenda Boetel tells Brownfield, “I think we’re seeing bigger impact on trade and concern over trade negotiations already in the export markets for corn and for soybeans.  I think we’re starting to see some of that occurring because we’ve seen both corn and soybeans for this marketing year, the exports are significantly down and the only reason I can think of that has to do with the negotiations that are currently going on.”

University of Wisconsin-River Falls professor Brenda Boetel says that another area of concern is in pork exports.  Boetel says the U.S. exports 21% of its pork production, but sales to Mexico were down 10% last year.  And, she says even with projected increases in 2018, the competition is taking more market share.  “So we’re increasing, but again, we’re not increasing at the rate the EU is, so yes, we are exporting more pork to Mexico, but we’re losing market share to Mexico to the EU at the same time.”

Boetel presented her crop and livestock projections at the 2018 Agricultural Outlook Forum in Madison, Wisconsin.