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USDA economist says global crop production shortfalls add another year of uncertainty

USDA’s Chief Economist says lower crop production around the world has added volatility in the commodity markets.  

Seth Meyer tells Brownfield “I think this goes back 18 or months where we’ve had really solid demand where we’ve had a series of production hiccups. Think about the South American soybean crop, or the Indian wheat crop looked like it was going to be really good and then it wasn’t quite as good as everybody had hoped.  We’ve had these production shortfalls that keep sparking uncertainty in the market.”

And, he says, he’s unsure how much Ukrainian farmers will harvest or export this fall and that adds even more uncertainty.

Meyer says USDA’s latest production report showed a shrinking North American crop with cuts to corn and soybean acres. “Those were the surprises, which gave us a smaller crop than what we anticipated even if we go the yields right. Yields, which were a little below trend for these primary spring crops, but acreage was the surprise.  Smaller crop, smaller production and I think we’ve pushed this uncertainty out another 12 months.”  

USDA recently reduced corn area by about 1 million acres and 570,000 acres for soybeans.

Brownfield interviewed Meyer at the 2022 Ag Outlook Forum presented by Agri-Pulse and the Kansas City Agribusiness Council.