Recent trade data continues to highlight that the challenges producers are facing go beyond production. For an industry accustomed to achieving a trade surplus year after year, a trade deficit of nearly $3 billion over the first six months of 2020 is eye-popping. The longer COVID-19 impacts consumers worldwide, the more unlikely it is that exports will make up for lost sales thus far. Could 2020 be the first year in recent memory that U.S. agriculture experiences a trade deficit? Only time will tell.
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