4. Agricultural exports equivalent to large shares of U.S. agricultural output.— Chart No. 4 shows that major items in U.S. agricultural exports comprise important segments of domestic output. In many instances, sizable percentage reductions took place from 1956 to 1957 in the relation of exports to production. However, with some exports coming largely out of CCC inventories which

include the production of earlier years, the percentages shown in the table do not in all instances measure the amount of a given crop that was exported in the 1957 marketing year. This was particularly true of cotton.

U.S. agricultural exports compared with production, marketing year 19571

5. Grains, feeds, and cotton largest U.S. agricultural exports.-Exports of grains, feeds, and cotton in fiscal 1958 totaled $2.2 billion, or 55 percent of the $4 billion total for all agricultural exports. This is only 4 percent below the share that these commodities represented of total agricultural exports in fiscal 1957. Other commodity groupings for fiscal 1958 and their percentage relation to total exports are: Livestock products, 15 percent; vegetable oils and oilseeds, 10 percent; fruits and vegetables, 10 percent; and tobacco, 9 percent (chart No. 5).

6. Feed grain and soybean exports at record peak in 1958.-Exports of feed grains-oats, barley, corn, and sorghum grains and products were a record 9 million short tons in fiscal year 1958, compared with 7 million tons in 1957 and the previous record of 81⁄2 million tons in 1956. Main reasons for the record in 1958 were the shortage of feed wheat in Europe; increased foreign currency sales, particularly to Mexico and Poland; and the lower exportable supplies available in other countries. At the same time, exports of soybeans attained a record volume of 88 million bushels in 1957. Soybean exports have been rising steadily. Factors underlying the record level soybean exports included the abundant and dependable supplies from record U.S. crops, high-level demand in Europe for the protein as well as the oil contained in soybeans, and limited supplies available from Manchuria.

7. Major export markets.-U.S. agricultural exports to the 15 leading markets are shown in the following table. Shipments to these countries accounted for 73 percent of total exports in fiscal year 1958, compared with 71 percent in 1957. Exports were greatly reduced to 11 of the 15 countries in 1958, including the 5 best outlets-the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, West Germany, and the Netherlands (chart No. 6).