The value of US agricultural exports reached another new high in 2022, but it was not all good news for American producers.
International sales of US farm and food products reached $196 billion this past year, an increase of 11% or $19.5 billion from the previous record set in 2021, a USDA release said Friday. The 2022 increase comes after a nearly 18% or $26.8 billion jump from 2020 to 2021. For context, the average year-over-year increase in US ag export value over the last decade has been 3.3%.
However, a deeper dive into the numbers by American Farm Bureau senior economist Veronica Nigh in a Market Intel piece revealed several deeper issues.
For starters, US ag imports by value also increased significantly over 2021, up 16% or nearly $28 billion. In fact, the US ended 2022 with an agricultural trade deficit of $3 billion - the second time it has done so in the last 10 years, during which the 10-year average has been a trade surplus of $12.5 billion.
It is also noteable that despite the increase in export value in 2022, US ag export volume actually declined by 6%. Corn was among those commodities that suffered on both the volume and value fronts this past year, with volumes down 16% on the year and value down a much more modest 0.11%. Nigh suggested low Mississippi River levels during peak export season were a significant constraint for corn exports in 2022.
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