By U.S. Sen. Jim Talent

Missouri is a diverse agricultural state, but there is one area where everyone in the industry agrees: the U.S. needs to expand our export markets. Agriculture exports are crucial to Missouri's economy. The value of Missouri agriculture exports in 2002 totaled $1.18 billion.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised forecast of agricultural exports for fiscal year 2004 shows sales of $61.5 billion, an increase of $5.3 billion over the previous year. This level of sales, if realized, would be the highest ever, eclipsing the old record of $59.8 billion set in fiscal year 1996.

To help better serve Missouri's agriculture community, I've established an Agriculture Export Advisory Council. In the past, I've constantly been talking with the various producer groups and the government trade officials and I wanted to formalize these discussions. The purpose of the Council is to provide a forum for Missouri's agriculture associations, co-ops and private companies headquartered in the state to discuss trade opportunities for our commodities and interact with eachother.

Members of the Council will include representatives from each of the commodity groups including Charlie Kruse, President of Missouri Farm Bureau, Dale Ludwig, President/CEO of Missouri Soybean Association, Rusty Kahrs, President of Missouri Cattlemen, Gina Bowman Morill, Chair Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City and a growing number of agriculture stakeholders. The majority of these groups have someone on staff dedicated to promoting increased exports.

I'm the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Marketing Inspection and Promotion and one of the priorities of the Council is to promote policies developed within the Council through my Subcommittee.

The Council can serve as a two way dialog between Missouri and Washington regarding export opportunities for agriculture products. We will bring Administration officials to Missouri to promote the efforts of our agriculture leaders on a national level.
At our inaugural meeting in Kansas City, the Council had the opportunity to discuss the future of the Asian market with Ellen Terpstra, Foreign Agriculture Service Administrator and foreign agriculture leaders including Takao Shibata, Consul General of Japan in Kansas City and Zhao Weining, First Secretary (Commercial and Agriculture) at the Commercial and Economic Office at the Embassy of China in Washington.

China and Japan are two of the largest markets in the world, and two of the largest markets for U.S. agriculture products. American farmers and ranchers depend on exports - and our consumers abroad depend on their products. Expanding markets for U.S. agriculture is critical to the long-term economic health and prosperity of our agricultural sector and the food security of other nations.

The United States is the world's largest agricultural exporter. The value of agricultural exports equals nearly one-fourth of farm cash receipts, about twice the level of the overall U.S. economy, and 1 out of 3 acres are planted for export.

During the past 50 years, corn yields have tripled and wheat yields have doubled. Agricultural sector productivity in the United States has been rising at an annual rate of about 2 percent. These vast developments mean more money for our farmers, and high-quality exports for our overseas consumers.

American farmers export 45 percent of their wheat, 34 percent of their soybeans. This rising productivity benefits the entire U.S. economy by releasing resources that can be used to produce other goods and services Americans want.

The Bush Administration recognizes that agriculture is the cornerstone of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and remains committed to an ambitious agenda, including the goal of having all WTO members open their markets more fully to farm imports. Ellen Terpstra in particular through her work with the Office of the United States Trade Representative has demonstrated the Administration's strong commitment to opening and maintaining markets for U.S. products.

Japan remains our number one market overall for U.S. agriculture exports. According to USDA, 15 percent of all agriculture exports go to Japan.

China is now our No. 1 market for soybeans, cotton, and our sixth largest market for wheat.  They purchased $2.9 billion worth of soybeans in FY 2003, a 200 percent increase over export levels prior to its WTO accession. China imported $737 million worth of cotton in 2003, up by 1500 percent from 2001. Recently China has committed to purchase nearly 3 million tons of U.S. wheat, valued at $500 million, over this and the next marketing year. This means China will be our sixth largest wheat market; this is a tenfold increase from two years ago.

These benefits spread beyond the farm. U.S. agriculture exports support 888,000 jobs - more importantly, 40 percent of these jobs are in Rural America. It's also important to note that over the last few years the trade deficit has grown in other factions of the economy - however, in agriculture, we continue to see growth and a positive contribution to our balance of trade.

Without neglecting other markets, Asia has to rank at the top as we work to open new markets abroad. At our recent meeting in Kansas City, I was very pleased when the Japanes Consulate General stated that he hoped their markets would reopen to U.S. beef by the fall.

Additionally, the Chinese officials stated they hoped to bring in more U.S. milk in the next few months and years. I will continue to work with the Administration and the Council with the hope of making these goals a reality.

The Council will be hosting similar meetings around the state on a variety of agriculture issues related to expanding our export markets on behalf of our producers. Our next meeting will be held in September with USTR Ambassador, Allen Johnson in Southeast Missouri.

Our farmers and ranchers continue to be the most efficient and productive in the world. If we want family farming to continue to be prosperous we have to increase our markets abroad, both for our high-value commodities and our value-added products. That is my goal and the goal of the Council.