How Will Coronavirus Impact U.S. Agriculture?

By CropLife|12 March 2020

A couple of weeks ago, I spent time at the 24^th annual Commodity Classic show in San Antonio, TX, writes Eric Sfiligoj at CropLife. The event was well attended, with more than 9,000 visitors coming to see and hear about the latest agricultural news heading into the 2020 growing season. For the most part, people seemed interested in talking about how the recent U.S.-China Phase One trade agreement might re-energize the market following all the export uncertainty that dominated most of the 2019 growing season. Many also commented on the keynote address by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue where he discussed agricultural trade and how the coming of 5G communications might affect agriculture technology trends over the next year or so.

Yet, although it wasn’t on any of the speaking programs at the 2020 Commodity Classic, the spreading coronavirus situation did enter into many conversations on the show floor. For the most part, attendees seemed confident that U.S. agriculture should be “okay overall” when it comes to avoiding the novel virus itself. However, there are potential problems ahead.

One would be in the country where coronavirus got its start, China. According to news sources, almost 3,000 people in the country have died from the disease and thousands more have been sickened. By extension, this has disrupted the business supply chain in China, preventing commodity transportation from taking place. Based upon these disruptions, Rabobank predicts Chinese soy oil consumption this year will fall 7% and soybean meal consumption will drop 4% during the first half of 2020.

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