Export Percentages

Export Percentages

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Laura Johnson, marketing director for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture spoke on exports and international trade at the annual commodity conference of the Idaho Farm Bureau. She talked about our biggest customers. “Exports are very important to Idaho. Important to agriculture.” Idaho’s best customers are Canada and Mexico. “Number one, Canada, 26%, number two, Mexico, 20% of our total exports go to Mexico, then 7% to China, 7% to South Korea, 6% to Japan and 5% in the Netherlands.” New negotiations on trade agreements, especially NAFTA, are critical to the future of Idaho’s exports into international markets. “We have a lot at stake right now with NAFTA being renegotiated and modernized. There have been six rounds of negotiation and there has been some misconception about NAFTA and its importance, but for Idaho and agriculture is hugely important for us. So the United States is no longer a party to the TPP but at those 11 countries that remain have made an agreement to negotiate without the United States. Our competitors will now have better access to those markets than we will.” Johnson says Asian markets where a lot of commodities produced in Western states are traded, continue a rapid population growth and that is good for Idaho wheat sales.
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