More U.S. agricultural exports are now going to upper middle income countries

Middle-income countries, including Mexico and China, continue to grow as key partners in U.S. agricultural trade. In 2011, the United States shipped nearly half of its total agricultural exports to upper middle-income countries. Steadily rising income levels, expanding populations, and increased urbanization in developing countries have helped position them as important and fast growing export destinations for U.S. agricultural products, while high-income countries, such as Japan and member states of the European Union, account for declining shares U.S. exports. This chart appears in "Middle-Income Countries Drive U.S. Agricultural Trade" in the September 2012 issue of ERS's Amber Waves magazine.

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