NC Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler explains that NCDA works with USDA to inspect agricultural goods leaving the country from North Carolina:
“There is a component of agricultural exports that often get over looked, those are Phytosanitary certificates. We work with USDA on issuing these.”
Increasing ag exports is good for the overall North Carolina economy according to Troxler:
“We are booming with our exports. It’s a good thing for farmers, it’s a good thing for North Carolina.”
Troxler outlines some of the ag products that leave the state, and the country, all requiring inspection to the recipient country’s standards:
“If it weren’t for our agricultural exports, we would have a big surplus of all the products we are producing in North Carolina. These export opportunities are lumber, cotton, tobacco, nursery plants, soybeans, corn… even the sweet potato industry has grown to be number one because we are exporting so many products. All of these products require Phytosanitary certificates.”
The owner of goods leaving the country may choose to have a certificate issued by North Carolina Department of agriculture at the farm or at the port before the goods leave the country.
A year after enduring massive floods, much of the Midwest faces a drought expanding in size and intensity, damaging crops and raising concerns about the threat of fire from fireworks as July 4 approaches. More on the dry temperatures from meteorologist Ariel Cohen at the Storm Prediction Center.
“In the southern plains and the southeastern US, a few more days of this is likely. It’s hard to pinpoint and exact end.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farmers planted 96.4 million acres of corn this spring, up 5 percent from last year.It's the largest number of planted acres since 97 million in 1937. The revised estimate, based on early June farm surveys, is up from May's estimate of nearly 92 million acres. The USDA says farmers expect to make more profit from corn than other commodities. |