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overview
Annual estimates of U.S. exports by State and commodity group based
on each State's share of U.S. agricultural production. State exports
are updated annually on June 30.
data files (*.xls format)
features
U.S. agricultural trade briefing room
contains analyses of U.S. agricultural trade and electronic publications.
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United
States (FATUS) provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports,
volume and value, by country and by commodity. Updated monthly or
annually.
State fact sheets
provide information on population, employment, income, farm characteristics,
and farm financial indicators for each State in the United States.
methodology
Data on the value of U.S. agricultural exports by State of production
are not collected by the U.S. Customs Service. Consequently, the
Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates State shares of agricultural
exports using Custom District-level export data compiled by the
U.S. Census Bureau and State-level agricultural production data
supplied by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
As noted below, these approximations are adjusted for exports of
agricultural products for which NASS does not collect State-level
production data. Using these approximations, a State that is the
largest producer of an agricultural commodity will also account
for the largest share of U.S. exports of that commodity. Countries
of destination for each State's exports cannot be determined.
U.S. agricultural commodity exports often are produced in inland
States. From the farm, a commodity is sold to a local elevator,
which in turn may sell it to a larger elevator located at a major
transportation hub, which then moves the commodity to a port. The
transportation hub may not be located in the same State as the producer.
Sometimes, even the local elevator is located in another State.
Thus, an agricultural commodity is likely to pass through several
States before being exported, and the actual State of origin is
easily lost as commodities move from farmgate to port. Furthermore,
bulk agricultural commodities may be mixed with other lots of the
same commodity in storage or transporting at any stage along the
way to the port, effectively commingling commodities with differing
States of origin.
U.S. trade data are submitted to the U.S. Customs Service by individual
exporting companies on a Shipper's Export Declaration form collected
just prior to the time of export. On the form, the State requested
is either: 1) the State from which the commodity was purchased to
begin its export journey to port, 2) the State in which the commodity
was consolidated by an exporter for transporting to the port, or
3) the zip code address of the exporter. For many agricultural and
bulk shipments, the State recorded on these forms often is the transportation
point at which the export was consolidated or the port of exit,
not necessarily the State in which the commodity was produced.
To more accurately reflect the situation for agricultural commodities,
ERS calculates U.S. State agricultural exports based on a State's
share of production of the exported commodity. While more accurate
for agricultural products than using the information collected at
the port by Customs and Census, this methodology is still imperfect.
There are two key sources of data. Export data used by ERS are
national-level Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS)
data from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service's U.S.
Trade Internet System, which are not separable by State. ERS
also uses State-level historical
production data from NASS to determine State export shares for
U.S. crops and livestock. In ERS' State export estimates, each State's
share of production of the commodity is simply applied to the total
commodity export figure to derive the State's estimated export value.
In addition, these approximations are adjusted for exports of agricultural
products for which NASS does not publish annual State-level production
data, such as prepared foods. For these products, some production
data by State is found every 5th year in the Census
of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce's Product
Summary, 1997 Economic Census, Manufacturing, Subject Series.
If these data are not available for a given commodity, then generally
an average of the State's share of the raw products' production
is applied to any "other" products included in that group's
export total (such as wheat's share for pasta). Production and export
data are revised annually reflecting updates by NASS and Census.
Besides ERS, three other organizations—the U.S.
Census Bureau; PIERS
by Global Intelligence Solutions and the Journal of Commerce; and
MISER, a database of the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst—estimate the State of
origin of U.S. exports. Estimates of State exports made by these
organizations cover total merchandise trade, including, but not
limited to, agriculture. However, these estimates are based on the
data available at the port from Shippers Export Declaration Forms.
Consequently, for agricultural commodities, because of the limitations
mentioned above, these organizations' estimates of State of export
origin tend to inflate the relative exports from port States (such
as Louisiana) and undercount those of inland States (such as Kansas).
final destinations of agricultural imports
Although U.S. port of entry data are available for agricultural
imports, State-of-destination data are not available. Consequently,
agricultural imports cannot be tracked to their final destinations
by State.
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