Farm Exports Headed For Record This Year

Farm exports should reach a record $60 billion this budget year, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Wednesday.

Glickman also said he would work to make sure that U.S. exports would not suffer from disagreements with China over computer copyright violations and its export of nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan.

Although freer trade has helped exports, short supplies of corn and wheat drove most of the expected rise in trade for the budget year, which ends Sept. 30. The forecast is up $2 billion from one issued in November. If realized, the exports would top the 1995 record by nearly $6 billion.

The strongest trade growth will be in Asia, which bought more than 6 million tons of U.S. corn and wheat this year, Glickman said.