Agriculture Trade Statistics

Trade in agriculture has been a high priority item for World Trade Organization (WTO) member states since the start of the Doha Round in 2001, and lack of substantive progress in global trade can partially be attributed to the importance of the agriculture sector in all member states.

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Despite the lack of a revised global agreement on agriculture trade, a good deal of agriculture trade continues to take place. The U.S. Census Bureau provides a convenient package of Agriculture Statistics easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection and spreadsheet. It divides into five separate categories.

1. Agricultural Exports and Imports
2. Crops
3. Farm Income and Balance Sheet
4. Farms and Farmland
5. Meat and Livestock

Each of the categories contains about 10 different sets of statistics that can be retrieved with the click of a mouse on the appropriate link.

The first category covers agriculture trade. Clicking on the link for the third file in the Agricultural Exports and Imports category, called Agricultural Imports--Value by Selected Commodity: 1990 to 2006 brings up many interesting statistics. According to that table, the top five agriculture imports in 2006, based on the dollar value of the product were:

• Vegetables $7 billion
• Fruits $6.5 billion
• Grains $5.3 billion
• Wine $4.2 billion
• Malt Beverages $3.6 billion

The following table is called Agricultural Imports--Value by Selected Countries of Origin: 1990 to 2005. According to that table, the top five states importing those goods to the United States in 2005 were:

• European Union $14.4 billion
• Canada $13.4 billion
• Mexico $9.4 billion
• Australia $2.5 billion
• Brazil $2.2 billion

The statistical package consists of around 50 different spreadsheet files that provide both short term and medium term statistical trends in agriculture.

© 2007-8 Patricia A. Michaels.