U.S. Agricultural Exports · Exports of U.S. farm products are projected at a record $47-$49 billion in fiscal 1981, compared with $40.5 billion in fiscal 1980. The developed market economies of Japan, Western Europe, and Canada combined will again take more than half of all U.S. agricultural exports on a dollar basis in 1980/81. African and Latin American nations will account for nearly a fifth of U. S. farm exports and Asia (excluding Japan and China) about 17 percent. Export volume is expected to reach more than 169 million metric tons in 1980/81, exceeding last year's record 163.9. Grains make up more than 70 percent of U.S. agricultural export volume and have accounted for three-fourths of the growth in tonnage moved abroad over the past decade. Oilseeds and products remain the second largest component of U.S. export volume. The U.S. share of world grain trade is expected to expand slightly in 1980/81 while the share of world trade in soybeans may slip from the 1979/80 level. Cotton exports are projected to drop considerably because of tight supplies and high prices. More than half of this year's production of U.S. wheat, rice, soybeans and cotton will be exported in fiscal 1981, along with about 37 percent of domestic feed grain output. The agricultural trade balance moved upward again in 1980, reaching a $23.6-billion surplus compared with a nonagricultural trade deficit of $50 billion for the calendar year. Petroleum remains the main factor in the slide in the nonagricultural balance that began in 1974. Expanding exports of grain and soybeans continue to strain the U.S. transportation system. As a result of delays in the movements of barge traffic to Gulf Coast ports, an increasing volume of còrn has been moving by train from the western Corn Belt to West Coast ports. The Asian demand for U.S. grain has also been a factor as the West Coast's share of exports of those commodities has risen from 9 percent in 1977 to 17-1/2 percent in 1981. |