Agricultural exports to China down 13% in Fiscal Year 2015; 17% of all U.S. ag exports go to China

A slowdown in China's economy is having a major impact on U.S. agriculture, with total Fiscal Year 2015 exports to China "down approximately $4 billion or 13 percent from the previous fiscal year and projected to drop even more in FY 2016," Neil Mikulski reports for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "From fiscal year (FY) 2000 to FY 2015, the value of U.S. agricultural and related exports to China rose from $1.7 to $25.9 billion dollars. Currently, nearly 17 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports are destined for the Chinese market."

But China's struggling economy has led the country to decrease its exports from the U.S. in favor of cheaper products in New Zealand and South America. "Collectively, these events have created uncertainty within the global agricultural marketplace and have caused broad speculation on the future of U.S. trade with China," Mikulski writes.

The impact is clear in states like Wisconsin, where imports to China "helped to drive what was called a 'golden era' in Wisconsin agriculture," Dave Delozier reports Delozier for WISC-TV. "To feed one of the world’s largest populations, China purchased dairy, poultry, meat and grains from Wisconsin farmers." Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Casey Langan told Delozier, “The impact that China has on global agriculture can never be undersold. Imagine that half of the pigs on the entire planet are consumed in China. Even closer to home in Wisconsin, one out of every four rows of corn in the United States is going to China."