COLORADO, USA — New trade deals adding opportunity for international exports are poised to help Colorado agriculture and food producers rebound in 2020.
The two biggest Asian buyers of Colorado food products, South Korea and Japan, reworked trade deals with the United States in 2019 and lowered barriers to beef, the state’s biggest agricultural export.
Farmers and ranchers start the year with congressional and White House agreement on a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact, which is designed to update the North America Free Trade Agreement between the three countries. Trade with those four countries exceeded $1.3 billion in 2018. But the trade negotiations in the early part of 2019 cut into Colorado food and agricultural exports.
Farm and ranch exports from Colorado fell in the first half of 2019, according to the Colorado Legislative Council, with beef exports down 6.4%, corn exports down 44%, wheat off by 56% and international cheese sales down 79%.
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