The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected that its country’s agricultural imports will increase in fiscal year 2022.
For the current year, the USDA forecasts that Western Hemisphere regional imports will rise by $7.2 billion from the previous forecast of $98.9 billion to $106.1 billion.
The USDA expects Mexico to remain the largest foreign supplier of agricultural products to the United States, with Canada in second place and the European Union right behind as the third largest.
It also estimates sales from Mexico to be $42.9 billion, an increase of $3.5 billion from the February forecast due to expected increases in fresh and processed fruits, processed vegetables and distilled spirits, among other products.
The forecast value of US agricultural imports from Canada increased by $1.5 billion, to $34.8 billion from the February projection, based on upward adjustments to imports of baked goods, grain products and oilseed products.
On the other hand, it considers that US imports from South America in fiscal year 2022 advance 2.2 billion dollars, from the February forecast to 20.1 billion.
Agricultural imports
In particular, the USDA estimates that imports from Brazil will grow $900 million from the previous forecast due to higher expected sales values of coffee and beef products, while it expects Chile (+$200 million), Colombia (+300 million) and Peru (+600 million) supply more agricultural products than expected in February.
These increases are attributed to anticipated gains in imports of poultry, cut and nursery flowers, coffee and fresh fruit from those countries.
Conversely, the United States is the main exporter and supplier of soybeans to Mexico. The growth of Mexico’s livestock sector has fueled the growth in demand for US soybeans in recent years.
Soybeans are generally imported and crushed in Mexico for use as edible oil for human consumption and soybean meal for livestock feed.
In addition, Mexico continues to be an excellent market for grain exports from the United States, despite also being a producer of these grains. Mexico was the main destination for US exports of corn, wheat and rice by volume.
