U.S. Agricultural Trade Showed Resiliency Through COVID-19 Pandemic

The overall value of U.S. agricultural trade increased in 2020 and 2021, despite global economic downturns from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2020, the United States exported $149.7 billion in agricultural exports, 6.1 percent more than the previous year and a 5-year high. The next year (2021), the value of U.S. agricultural exports rose an additional 18.9 percent to $177.0 billion. Soybean exports to China accounted for much of the increase in 2020, concentrated in the final 3 months of 2020 and offsetting declines in the value of many other U.S. agricultural exports in the early months of the pandemic.