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US/China trade deal will have little impact on USDA’s next supply and demand report

USDA will release its new World Agriculture Supply and Demand report Tuesday, but the agency’s acting ag outlook board chair says the signing of the US/ China trade deal won’t have much of an influence.

“Certainly, the agreement will be a part of our individual analysis for each of the commodities, but the ultimate analysis will be based on many different factors.”

Mark Jekanowski says it is difficult to determine how much the agreement should contribute to the report because the available purchase commitment numbers do not give monetary breakouts by commodity.

“We don’t have access to the information if it does exist.”

He says they also likely cover a variety of commodities, not just the major ones USDA reports on and…

“Our analyses are based on market conditions and in fact even within the agreement it states pretty clearly that the purchases will be made based on market conditions and market needs.”

He says it is unclear what those market needs are right now and how they might be affected by the Coronavirus outbreak in China.

The report comes out Tuesday at noon EST.