Tomato Suspension Agreement and June Rural Mainstreet Index
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**The Florida Tomato Exchange is urging the Department of Commerce to terminate the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement because it’s failed to stop unfairly traded Mexican tomatoes from destroying the U.S. tomato industry.
www.agrimarketing.com reports, it marks the fifth failed Suspension Agreements since 1996.
In 1994, the year NAFTA was signed, American tomato farmers
supplied about 80% of the U.S. market and Mexico about 20%.
Today, Mexico's share of the U.S. market is almost 70%.
www.agrimarketing.com/s/145676
**Farm Action and the National Dairy Producers Organization sent a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack calling for immediate release of federally mandated annual dairy checkoff spending reports.
They say the reports, “mandated by the same legislation that authorizes the dairy checkoff program,” have not been submitted to Congress in 2020, 21, or 22.
The reports describe “activities conducted, all fund receipt and disbursement, and an independent analysis of the effectiveness of the program.”
**After dropping below growth neutral in March, the June Rural Mainstreet Index went above the threshold for a third-straight month to its highest point since May of last year.
That’s according to the June monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas dependent on agriculture.
The overall June reading is 56.9, up from May’s 55.8.
CEOs ranked Federal Reserve rate hikes as the greatest challenge for the year ahead.
