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China: most short-term potential for ag exports

China’s impact on American agriculture is only going to get bigger according to USDA officials.

“We’ve got more people in China at USDA than anywhere else in the world except maybe for Washington, DC, but it’s also the place where we’ve got the most short-term potential to really move the needle on our ag exports,” said Jason Hafemeister, Trade Counsel to the USDA Secretary, during USDA’s recent ag outlook forum.  “We export about $20 billion a year to China in ag products and you could easily see that increasing by several billion dollars,” he says.

Michael Ward, a Senior Ag Attache at the US Embassy in Beijing, says China’s imports are expected to continue to grow with their middle class.  “At the end of 2001, total food and agricultural inputs have increased from $10.5 billion to $117.9 billion in 2017.”

Erin Ennis, with the US-China Business Council, says as China’s demand increases so do ag related business opportunities including infrastructure improvements, research and development, and more.