Phase One China Agreement begins February 15th

In last week’s edition of the Market Memo, you read that President Trump signed the Phase One Agreement with China. China agreed to purchase at least $40 billion annually over two years of U.S. agricultural products. CCM has been in close contact with our representatives and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) about the seriousness of the situation related to the citrus industry. We have been working on getting a definition regarding what we should expect as a result of the deal.  According to the office of the USTR, China is bound to, at the very least, resume 2017 baseline purchases of citrus. We should expect to start seeing the results of the agreement around February 15th. If they do indeed start to live up to the commitments related to citrus, we should begin to see positive results for citrus growers in both the export and domestic markets. CCM will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with our congressional representatives on the importance of the Chinese market for this critical export season.