USDA: Ag Trade Surplus Expected to Increase in 2017

(Wisconsin Ag Connection) – USDA forecasts U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year 2017 to reach $134 billion, up 1 percent from the previous forecast in August -largely due to expected increases in dairy and livestock byproduct exports.

U.S. agricultural imports in fiscal year 2017 are projected at $113 billion, down 1 percent from the August forecast.

Reduced imports of horticultural, sugar, and tropical products are leading this decline.

As a result, the U.S. agricultural trade surplus is expected to increase to $22 billion in fiscal 2017.

The forecasted surplus is an increase compared with the expected $17 billion surplus in fiscal 2016, but nearly half of the 2011 surplus of $43 billion.

The U.S. agricultural sector consistently runs a trade surplus, benefiting the overall U.S. trade balance -which has run a deficit every year since 1976.