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U.S. Agricultural Trade

 This page provides information on:  

Global economic conditions drive demand for food and agricultural products, providing the foundation for U.S. agricultural trade. Therefore, the composition and pattern of U.S. agricultural exports and imports shift to reflect changes in trade policies, world population and income, and economic growth. Other factors affecting U.S. agricultural trade include global supplies and prices, changes in exchange rates, and government support for agriculture. For an overview of U.S. agricultural trade, see U.S Agricultural Trade at a Glance.

USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) provides a range of data products and reports covering U.S. agricultural trade and factors affecting trade flows. 

Periodic, Scheduled Outputs

  • Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS), a USDA aggregation of data that provide information on U.S. agricultural exports and imports, volume, and value by country and by commodity. Updated monthly or annually.
  • The Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade forecasts U.S. agricultural exports and imports for the upcoming fiscal year, by country and sector.  
  • State Agricultural Trade Data include the annually updated State Exports, Cash Receipts Estimates calendar year data set which provides the value of exports by State and commodity, and the quarterly updated State Trade by Country of Origin and Destination fiscal quarter data set which provides the top five U.S. agricultural import and export commodities and the top countries buying or selling those commodities, by State.
  • Agricultural Trade Multipliers provide estimates of employment and/or output effects of trade in farm and food products on the U.S. economy. These effects, when expressed as multipliers, reflect the amount of economic activity and/or jobs generated by agricultural exports.
  • USDA Agricultural Projections, released in February each year and provide USDA's 10-year projections for the food and agriculture sector including expected U.S. agricultural trade by commodity group.
  • U.S. Food Imports, a dataset that provides import values of edible products (food and beverages) entering U.S. ports and their origin of shipment. Food and beverage import values are compiled by calendar year into food groups corresponding to major commodities or level of processing.

Selected ERS Reports Relating to U.S. Agricultural Trade 

In addition to the Outlook report and data products, USDA, ERS produces reports analyzing trade in a particular country or region and key factors affecting trade flows.

Selected USDA, ERS reports relating to U.S. agricultural trade include:

  • Growing Demand for Broken Rice for Feed and Food: The Implications for Global Trade

    Rice is one of the world’s most widely cultivated and consumed crops, and the efficient operation of the rice market is a critical concern for global food security. Broken rice (a byproduct of milling) is sold at a lower price than full grain rice for direct consumption, animal feed, or for industrial use. A potential exists that increased demand for broken rice for feed and industrial use could affect importing countries that depend on broken rice for food. (EIB-290, April 2025)

  • Assessing the Recent Shift in the Price Relationship Between India’s and Global Grain Markets

    In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and unprecedented food inflation, India’s Government doubled the amount of wheat and rice provided to food insecure households through its food distribution programs. In the years that followed the expansion of these programs, the Government of India also implemented trade restrictions on staple food items, including rice and wheat. However, imports of genetically engineered soybean products were excluded from India’s trade restrictions. Although some program details and trade restrictions have changed, these types of policies remained in effect through April 2024. This report investigates the underlying price relationship between international grain and oilseed prices and domestic market prices in India before and after implementing the new policy framework. (ERR-352, April 2025)

  • Evaluating the Impacts of Projected Yield Changes on India’s Wheat and Rice Markets

    This report evaluates how yield changes induced by volatile weather trends can impact India’s production, prices, and trade of wheat and rice. Results from a computable general equilibrium model show that under two volatile weather trend scenarios (one that is considered business as usual and another that projects more volatile weather), India is expected to see an increase in average yields for both rice and wheat in the next two to three decades. While increasing per hectare yield leads to higher total rice production in this report’s model, an increase in household income and population (as projected by USDA, Economic Research Service) will lead to higher per capita demand for rice in India. According to model results, this demand is expected to lead to an estimated reduction in exports of both rice and wheat to the global market. Furthermore, results indicate that countries importing from India would shift their demand to other major rice and wheat exporters (ERR-351, April 2025)

  • Demand for Alternative Feed Grains for Broiler Production in an Era of Global Price Uncertainty: The Case of Sorghum

    The expansion of broiler production to meet a growing demand for chicken meat has increased the need for feed globally. However, the demand for feed is complex, as these feedstuffs are also used for human consumption and biofuels, and broiler farmers tend to be risk averse when faced with uncertain input prices. This study looks at how the increased demand for broiler feed may have affected the demand for feed alternatives among some of the world’s major broiler producing countries, when faced with uncertain global feed prices and rising feed costs. (ERR-350, April 2025)

  • European Agri-Food Trade and Brexit: The First 3 Years of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

    Brexit marked the beginning of a new era in European trade, with implications for global commerce as the United Kingdom seeks to broaden its import sources for agricultural commodities. Since formally leaving the European Union on January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom kept strong, but weakening, trade links to the European bloc. This analysis seeks to quantify the degree of change in the trade dynamic across a range of agri-food and related commodity groups. This analysis is done by examining the difference in trade trends between the rest of the world and the trading partners, relative to their average bilateral trade over the last decade. (EB-41, March 2025)

  • The Growing Demand for Animal Products and Feed in India: Future Prospects for Production, Trade, and Technology Innovation

    India’s population and income are expected to grow steadily through 2050, which could lead to increased domestic demand for animal food products (e.g., meat, dairy, and eggs). This report provides projections indicating that India’s animal product demand will increase more quickly than supply and that India will have difficulty in meeting domestic feed demand unless genetically engineered seeds are used. Also, if demand for animal products continues to grow, as expected, more imports (and including imports of genetically engineered food products) might be needed. (ERR-347, March 2025)

  • Increasing Tariffs on Almond and Walnut Exports to Turkey

    The retaliatory tariffs against U.S. agricultural exports of 2017–18 have been removed by all countries, except for China and Turkey. The tariffs put in place by Turkey largely targeted U.S. tree-nut exports. As of October 2023, Turkey increased the most-favored-nation (MFN) duty, the tariff that all World Trade Organization (WTO) members pay, on almonds and walnuts, which further increased the tariff on U.S. exports. This report used a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the impacts to U.S. tree nut exports from the higher tariff. (EB-39, February 2025)