U.S. wheat exporters losing ground as Mexico turns to Russia, other suppliers because of Trump’s trade war
Trump’s $12 billion isn’t even going to begin to cover the damage he’s doing to the agricultural community. Especially the small family farms. Or what’s left of them rather.
U.S. wheat exporters losing ground as Mexico turns to Russia, other suppliers because of Trump’s trade war
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Mexico, the top importer of U.S. wheat, is increasingly turning to cheaper supplies from Russia, which surpassed the United States as the top global wheat supplier in 2016.
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The shifting supply deals are alarming for the U.S. industry, which has supplied the vast majority of Mexico’s wheat since the 1994 North American free-trade agreement took effect.
U.S. wheat exports to Mexico dropped 38 per cent in value, to US$285-million, in the first five months of 2018. U.S. wheat exports to all countries,
valued at US$2.2-billion, dropped 21 per cent.
“The Mexico market ought to be just an extension of our domestic market,” said Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Wheat Commission in Kansas, the biggest American wheat-producing state.Instead, Mexican buyers plan to import as much as 100,000 tonnes from Argentina – worth about US$20-million based on current prices – when it harvests wheat later this year, Mr. Fuente said. Mexico imported a test cargo of 33,000 tonnes in late 2017 after the its government financed a trade mission of grain buyers to find alternatives to U.S. wheat in Latin America.
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The loss of the Mexican market is hurting U.S. farmers in states such as Kansas, where a severe drought slashed output this year. In the town of Chapman, in central Kansas, farmer Ken Wood said that prices dropped by 50 to 60 US cents a bushel in a week late last month as farmers harvested their crops amid export market uncertainty.
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/u-s-wheat-exporters-losing-ground-a...
Sending our subsidized agricultural products pretty much destroyed the farmers in Mexico. I doubt they’ll shed too many tears now that it’s out turn. It’s so sad. It’s always the little guys who get hurt. Here and there.
Comments
Feature not bug.
The purpose is to further push family farms to sellout to the corporate farms. As long as they receive the future benefit everything is just peachy. But then we all know that.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
This is what I've been thinking
The tariffs are going to trigger a recession that is just waiting to happen and then the banks will cause another crash and everything goes to shit again.
Feature not a bug.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
And our PTB can blame
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Why doesn't Mexico grow their own wheat?
Climate? They have the manpower. I'm sure the desperate people risking their lives to cross the border would rather have jobs in their homeland.
This smells like corporate propaganda.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Supposedly, one of Mexico's
Right now, Lauren Ingraham is decrying the globalists who support the current tariff structure in response to some guy, I guess a dem, who is hysterical over the tariffs and agriculture. Laura (something to the effect of): yeah, you like the tariffs so you can keep getting big payoffs from lobbyists.
Gee, who knew right-wingers would decry globalists and their affect on the middle class of US.
dfarrah
The Republicans are getting populist
as the Democrats become Wall Street lackeys. Turn turn turn. 150 years ago Republicans were the liberals supporting abolition. Democrats represented the rich slaveholders. Around a hundred years ago, Republicans supported Pure Food and Drug laws while Democrats were against them. Democrats became liberal again in the Great Depression and slowly devolved to Clintoncrats.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Wait a minute!
We don't have export taxes! American wheat costs Mexico no more than it did before Trump.
More propaganda from free traders.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Yeah, Trump barely
The article cites trends going back several months well before the tariff hysteria.
dfarrah
Ah, just throw money at the farmers.
They deserve gubmit welfare. The poor - not so much.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Farmers have gotten
dfarrah
...
For example
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Regardless, it's obviously
not enough. They need more now, family farmers or not. But, let's have no compassion for the homeless, the poor (all classes of poor), the disadvantaged, the elderly (in fact, lets decrease SS benefits - or eliminate them altogether), etc.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I am doubting the family farms part.
The acreage necessary and the equipment necessary to grow wheat commercially and compete is not an ordinary mom and pop operation.
Who do you think grew wheat before
corporate farmers took over?
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Modern farming is vastly different
EDIT:
BTW, back in the '60s I heard a lot of grousing about Social security. "I can get a much better return in the stock market" pouted Republicans. Much less of that talk after the stock market went into a tailspin. But then it became "Morning in America" and tax cuts/deregulation were touted as the reason the economy recovered. In fact it was the FED lifting their foot off the money supply once the big investment banks had digested the carcasses they swallowed.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
It's a different world now
Population 1956 - US 170 million, World 2.8 billion
Harvesting wheat in 1956
Baking bread 1956
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIkmdTSMYbw]
Population 2018 - US 330 million, World 7.6 billion
Harvesting wheat in 2018. These corporately owned machines travel south to north through the US wheat belt during the harvest season as the wheat ripens. Very few independent farmers can afford or have the acreage to own and operate these machines for their single harvest.
Baking bread now
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeFuFEmojBI]
Was same in 1980
Custom cutters were hired by farmers that couldn't afford to own one and use it for one harvest per year.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Was same in 1940s
See movie "Wild Harvest" (1947) http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/95841/Wild-Harvest/, which follows the adventures of a traveling combine crew as they hire out south to north over the harvest season. (Relatively trivial but fun movie.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
@davidgmillsatty You describe modern
And it is incumbent on our nation and its people to support those corporations in reaching their goal.
I agree with those who find this poutrage by the corporate farming industry to be very disingenuous.
Fake news?
Mexico's tariff on US wheat didn't take effect until the first week of July. But the cited article states that wheat imports dropped January through May. Something doesn't add up here. The article seems more like propaganda than actual reportage.