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While it may not have been a “normal year”, 2021 was good for farmers, according to American Farm Bureau Federation Chief Economist Roger Cryan. And Cryan said 2022 is continuing with the “not normal” theme, as issues from the past two years pour into the New Year.

“The pandemic is not over. So, people are still spending money differently. They're buying stuff instead of restaurant meals or tickets to the ballgame, so forth. Crowded ports and too few truck drivers are making it hard to move ag products and other stuff that people are buying. And of course, geopolitics is affecting our access to markets and our availability of farm inputs, in many ways as well. And inflation is a very serious concern for the first time in 40 years.”

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Cryan said net farm income is expected above average for 2022, but the AFBF does not expect any further government payments beyond normal programs. Another economic issue that has the attention of farm country, supply chain issues.

“Well, there's two issues: they're concerned about the prices and they're even more concerned about the availability of it," noted AFBF President Zippy Duvall. "We got some suppliers and they're going to try their best to deliver to their everyday customers that do business with them every day, but it's going to prevent new customers and new farmers and new people getting involved in agriculture from even having a supply to go to. but we're very, very concerned and whatever the interruption is, whether it be at our ports, whether it be in tariffs, whatever that might be, we got to find a solution to it.”

Duvall added other top issues for the AFBF into 2022 include farm labor, and beef markets.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com

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