Corn volume shipments are up by a third over last fiscal year. Purchases of corn are higher, in part, because prices are lower and because some countries, notably South Korea, have begun to recover from last year's economic distress. The steep fall in exports of soybeans results largely from strong South American competition and record global oilseed production. Both prices and demand have plummeted. For soybeans, the value of exports is down 33 percent in the fiscal year and volume is down 16 percent.
Prices also are lower.
As a group, HVP exports are down 10 percent, about half the overall decline of bulk commodity exports. While agricultural imports in fiscal 1999 are about equal to last year's value, imports of noncompetitive products are 14 percent lower. Reduced import value of coffee and rubber are mainly due to their much lower prices. The top 10 exporting States remained the same as in fiscal 1997, but as a group accounted for only 55 percent of total U.S. exports in 1998, down 2 percent from 1997. California's exports increased, as did those of Texas and Kansas.