American Ag Today- 10/24/24

And welcome into a brand new episode of American Ag today produced by the American Ag radio network. I'm your host Jesse Allen. Thanks for joining us here today. Well, I have two recent talks with Japanese officials in Idaho ended with little or no movement on getting us fresh potatoes into Japan. The National Potato Council still isn't giving up. Potato Council CEO Cam Coral said last Friday he'll be in Japan this week to continue talks.

both myself as well as Matt Lance who is our trade consultant. We're going to head over to Tokyo. We'll be there all of next week, meet with US embassy officials and some other industry folks just to continue to reinforce the importance of the Japanese market.

And after 20 years of negotiations, coral says NPC is not giving up. This opportunity for market access, again, it would be about 100 million annually in new US ag exports if we can get their market open for US fresh potatoes. Really challenging.

Japanese growers may keep resisting, but coral says potato producers won't quit trying. As you've said, this is greater than a two decade long battle right now. And the overriding point of this, Bob, is that hope springs eternal and we remain optimistic in spite of all evidence, maybe to the contrary. Corals will continue trying to convince their stubborn domestic growers that this would be a good thing.

Right now, they have no imports that come into Japan. Fresh table stock imports. They have effectively a monopoly on their domestic market. And if you've got a monopoly, I assume that they're valuable for those folks who have them and they want to keep them.

But coral says the demand for more potatoes in the market is there. And that's why they'll keep pushing for market access. Well, national FFA encourages members to engage throughout this week's convention and expo American Ag networks. Corrita LaRue has more in this report.

More than 70,000 students wearing blue corduroy jackets are in Indianapolis this week for the 97th National FFA Convention in Expo. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it almost feels like a family reunion. That's Amara Jackson from Michigan who is serving out her final week as National FFA President. This year's event starts out on Wednesday, October 23rd and wraps up with the final session on Saturday, October 26th.

The theme of this year's Convention in Expo is Engage. It's our hope that our members and guests that attend National Convention feel a deeper calling to become engaged with the people around them, with the experiences around them. When we're truly engaged, we can give back to our local communities. When we're truly engaged, we equip ourselves with knowledge and experiences that prepare us

for life in and outside of this blue jacket. And so when we engage, that is when we built those skills and those experiences that ensure that we're becoming the leader that FFA upholds us to be. She says one of the highlights of the event is the Expo at the Indiana Convention Center, which features more than 300 exhibitors. Those include some of the nation's top ag colleges like Purdue University and Cornell,

exhibitors also include some of the country's top ad businesses, including Corteva Agra Science and Case IH. That Expo is a great chance for students who maybe aren't sure of their next step after high school to kind of figure out and have conversations in the agriculture industry of what could be that next step for them. That is the best place to walk around and have conversations with like-minded people to ensure your future success.

Meanwhile inside Lucas Oil Stadium, right across the street from the expo, the sessions are underway for the National FFA Convention. The sessions are one of my favorite things to go to at National Convention. During that time, students are getting awarded for different leadership and career development events.

agro science fair project, proficiency award, you name it, we're probably awarding it. So it's a great time to learn what kind of project or contest you'd like to be involved in next year while watching other students get recognized at a national level.

I encourage you to do as much as you can possible. Soak up each and every experience. Find some time to go to the expo. Find some time to go to multiple sessions. Find some time to explore and to meet people. There's no reason we can't walk away with more friends than what we came with. And so I encourage you to just be present even when your feet might hurt from walking and just continue to enjoy and find ways to get involved and engage.

As we take a look at other news of agriculture in 2022 USDA's Economic Research Service, eating and health module captured the first nationally representative data about how many U.S. residents grocery shop online. The data featured in the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey revealed that about one in five shoppers

purchased groceries online at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey. ERS researchers performed an analysis to look at the difference in the likelihood of online grocery shopping within the past month among a wide variety of personal characteristics. The largest disparity among any of these characteristics was the difference in an individual's education level from 9% for those with less of a high school diploma

to 26% of those with more than a bachelor's degree. Those with a bachelor's degree or higher were 17 percentage points more likely to buying groceries online. The USDA's beef production outlook is noticeably higher from September 3rd and 4th quarter 2024 production is forecast to be higher than last month, raising the annual forecast to 27 billion pounds just above 2023 production.

U.S. dairy milk production is expected to decline in 2024 due to lower yields from aging cows, adverse weather, and limited replacements in ports are expected to increase while exports remain mostly stable. Projected broiler production is adjusted down slightly in 2024 on recent slaughter data, but revised upward in 2025 on favorable hatchery indicators and feed prices.

projected broiler exports were adjusted down in 2024 and 2025 on recent data and strong global competition. Wholesale broiler price expectations are higher based on recent price data and strong demand expectations and projected turkey exports in 2024 were also adjusted down slightly. Projected turkey prices were adjusted down for the fourth quarter of 2024 and in 2025 based on weaker demand.

And finally here on today's program, a new online dashboard brings together a variety of regularly updated fertilizer transportation data. USDA's agricultural marketing service recently launched a fertilizer transportation dashboard to help build resilience in the agri-food supply chain by providing needed visibility into transportation markets.

through publicly available data. The dashboard offers indicators including fertilizer production, inventory and disappearance data for each primary nutrient, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, US fertilizer imports and fertilizer price data by region for key fertilizer commodities such as ammonia, urea, UAN, dap, map and potash.

The dashboard also includes rail volume and shipment characteristics from the surface transportation boards, public use, car load, Waybill sample, weekly rail car loads of fertilizer, a collection of rail tariff rates for key routes by fertilizer commodity and monthly barge volumes for key locks on the Mississippi River system. You can learn more at agtransport.usda.gov.

That's going to do it for this episode of American Ag today produced by the American Ag Radio Network. I'm Jesse Allen. Have a great rest of your day.