The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $900 billion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for April was $8.2 billion, down 7% year-over-year from new business volume in April 2019.
In 2018, U.S. cash receipts for all commodities totaled $373 billion. New York contributed about 1% ($5 billion) of that total, ranking 27th among all States. Receipts from milk accounted for the largest share of cash receipts in New York, at 49% ($2.5 billion).
Labor and harvest comprise nearly half of average total production costs for lettuce and more than one-third for fresh tomatoes, spinach and peaches. Rising wages and decreasing labor availability may combine to increase the costs to harvest the produce in a field.
Agricultural credit conditions in the Kansas City Fed’s Tenth District deteriorated at a slightly faster pace at the onset of developments related to COVID-19. The survey for the first quarter of 2020, distributed in mid-March, indicated a larger decline in farm income and loan repayment rates than in recent quarters.
“With the prices of most farm products dropping as the quarter ended, it’s not much of a surprise that key measures of [Seventh] District agricultural credit conditions deteriorated during the first quarter of 2020,” said David Oppedahl, senior business economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in the May 2020 Ag Letter.
According to the latest Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Farmland Values Report, the average value of Canadian farmland increased 5.2% in 2019, tying 2010 for the smallest increase over the past decade. This increase followed gains of 6.6% in 2018 and 8.4% in 2017.
Underpinned by record production, U.S. pork exports completed a tremendous first quarter with new March records for volume and value, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).
The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (the Foundation) has released the May 2020 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market improved with an index of 25.8, up from the historic low in April of 22.3.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) has released final harvest numbers from the 2019 hemp growing season. The inaugural season resulted in over 2.27 million pounds of total yield, with 73% of acres planted being harvested.
The European Union (EU) currently imports little corn from the U.S., but since 2000, imports of corn by member countries of the EU have been rising, therefore increasing the prospect of future U.S. corn shipments to the EU.
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In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we take an initial look at the Dealer Business Outlook & Trends Report and what dealers are forecasting for 2025.