Farm Exports May Hit Record for 2010/11

I just read an article in the most recent issue of BloombergBusinessWeek magazine that had some interesting facts and comments. 

First, for the first 8 months of 2010, farm exports are up by 14% to about $ 70 billion and this is before the recent increase in prices.

Second, it is estimated that China will become the second largest importer of our ag goods with $15 billion in 2011 second only to Canada’s $16.8 and slightly ahead of Mexico at $14.6 billion.

I am not sure if their math is correct since they say Ag is only 1% of our $14.3 trillion dollar economy which would be about $143 billion.  Our corn sales alone would be about $65 billion, so I am not sure if I agree with the math, but they do indicate if you include farm equipment sales, inputs, food processing, etc., the actual impact may be about 10 times higher or over $1 trillion in sales.

Tom Neher, vice president of AgStar Financial says their bank has issued twice as much farm equipment loans as expected in a recent promotion.  “I’ve seen more brand-new combines bought that I’ve seen for a long, long time”, says Neher, who helps manage $2.1 billion in grain-related loans and leases for AgStar.

That is also one of the prime reasons for BHP to try to buy Potash Corp.