Export Fact Sheet and Import Fact Sheet

Excerpts from the Report: U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year 1963-64 reached an alltime record. Value totaled $6,076 million, 20 percent above the previous year's $5,078 million. Volume advanced by 20 percent over the previous year's record. The export value was equivalent to 16 percent of the $36,925 million cash receipts from farm marketings in 1963. One out of every 4 harvested acres produced for export. The output of 80 million acres of U.S. cropland moved abroad in 1963-64. The export market provided a market for three-fourths of the wheat production; two-thirds of the rice; three-fifths of the nonfat dry milk; half of the dry edible peas; over two-fifths of the tallow, soybeans, and hops; a third of the cotton, rye, and prunes; around a fourth of the lard, dried whole milk, and tobacco; and a fifth of the raisins, dry edible beans, and cottonseed; and one-sixth of the grain sorghums, and barley. U.S. agricultural imports rose 5 percent (value) in fiscal year 1963-64. U.S. imports of agricultural products totaled $4,095 million in fiscal year 1963-64 compared with $3,911 million in the previous year. Volume declined by 3 percent, with a 7 percent drop in supplementary items more than offsetting a 2 percent rise in complementary products. The increase in value resulted mainly from larger imports of complementary (noncompetitive) products, since imports of supplementary (partially competitive) commodities were about equal to the previous year. Imports of supplementary commodities totaled $2,224 million compared with the previous year's $2,208 million. Complementary items rose to $1,871 million from $1,669 million. The United States is the world's second largest agricultural importing country. The United States took about one-sixth of world agricultural imports in 1963. The United Kingdom is the world's leading importer of agricultural commodities, taking $5 billion annually in recent years; West Germany is the third largest importer of farm products ($3.9 billion) and Japan is fourth (about $2.5 billion).