US farm exports may exceed $142bn forecast for year

US farm exports may top the record $142bn (€110.6bn) forecast in February as agreements with China and Russia reduce trade barriers and buyers replenish supplies at lower prices, US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Shipments valued at $55bn through January, a third of the way through the fiscal year, show the US on a path to sell the most exports ever, Vilsack said in an interview in Washington.

The department also announced that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have agreed to accept shipments of day-old chicks and hatching eggs, as well as agreements allowing live dairy-cattle exports to Iraq and the first sales of pears to China, Vilsack said. The Asian nation is forecast to be the biggest buyer of US farm products for a second straight year.

“We’re looking at a very, very strong trade year,” Vilsack said.

China, with projected $22bn in purchases of mostly soybeans and cotton this year, has emerged as a key source of US growth even as it continues to ban US beef, a prohibition noted as a “serious problem” by the US Trade Representative’s office earlier this week.

Selling pears, while unrelated to the meat impasse stemming from the first US case of mad-cow disease in 2003, will help build ties leading to resolution of other disputes, Vilsack said.

Farmer net income will be a record $128.2bn in 2013 as growers rebuild drought-depleted inventories, the USDA said in February. Corn, the biggest US crop, entered a bear market on Apr 1, having fallen more than 20% from its peak in August. The lower price may increase US sale volumes, compensating for lost revenues, Vilsack said. Exports for the 2012 fiscal year totalled $135.8bn, according to the department, which will update its agricultural trade estimates in May.