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
the Rumper for that crash that's been coming now for a while. While I am in NO way sympathetic to Trump's idiotic actions this works very well for our owners since Trump is in many ways a threat to them. Not that I think he is an actual threat to their greed but he blurts out far too many things that are in many ways correct and as we all see, that does worry them.
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
main crops is wheat.
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
started talking about changing the tariff structure, and prices and supplies are already changing. Yeah, that is so believable.
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
welfare since probably the 1930's. But at least it used to go to family farms years ago.
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
than the old family farms. Any "family farms" still existing are more like the Bush family farm than Ma and Pa kettle or Little house on the Prairie. Even in the late '70s/early '80s a tractor cost around $100K and a combine cost ~$300K. Staple crops like corn and wheat were grown on farms with thousands of acres. Mexico had family farms of around 3 acres like Europe in the Middle Ages and for the same reason - that's all a peasant farmer possibly with a draft animal (ox or mule) can handle. Modern farms have the aforesaid tractor(s) and sprayers and irrigaters, big bills for fertilizer and insecticide (organic farming is even more expensive because of added labor and crop losses). Smaller farmers were wiped out in Jimmy Carter's era. The government had encouraged them to expand and borrow heavily to buy more acreage and equipment. Then the FED raised interest rates into the stratosphere. And who was left standing? Corporate farms. In fact, I suspect, their profits went up as they bought up the little farms at foreclosure auctions with money from selling stock or even corporate bonds which were lower interest than mortgage loans. International Harvester collapsed as equipment sales plummeted and debt service went up to 30% and then infinity as they couldn't even borrow at those rates. IH was using the new for the '70s B-school technique of rolling over 30 to 90 day paper to take advantage of low short term rates for their long term debt. That worked fine until the yield curve inverted and then the credit crunch made money totally unavailable. John Deere had their long term debt in 5% long term bonds and didn't have to re-finance at ruinous rates. They survived. IH didn't. Luckily for my uncle who had retired from IH on a pension, ERISA prevented that from being totally wiped out. I found another job with TRW, still working on off road electronics. Most were not so fortunate.
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
You describe modern corporate farming which has as its primary goal profits and return on investments.
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.