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AFBF president asking for trade resolutions

The President of the American Farm Bureau says trade issues need to be resolved by the time harvesters start to roll.

“Our farmers plant a crop, they go all year long on a glimmer of hope that they’re going to be able to harvest a crop and be able to sell it at a profit.  They are scraping to try to find some hope right now.”

Zippy Duvall recently met one-on-one with Vice President Mike Pence to shed light on how the trade situation is impacting agriculture. His message to the vice president, in a recent appearance on Fox Business News and in meetings with farm bureau members remains the same: farmers need trade certainty.  “These trade treaties with all these tariffs are affecting the market just off of a whim whether it’s a news report or whether it’s tweet from the president.”

Duvall says farm income was down more than 50 percent before the trade war started and farmers are concerned where the market will go if resolutions can’t be made before harvest.

He says if it hadn’t been for Sonny Perdue however, the burden farmers are carrying on trade issues would have been hundredfold.

AUDIO: Duvall made comments at Farm Bureau’s recent National Joint Commodity Meeting in Michigan.