Export prices of American goods including agricultural increased by 2% between April 2024 and April 2025 before Trump’s tariffs.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics (BLS) on May 20, 2025, while export rates gained, import prices declined by 0.1% year-on-year (y-o-y).
Agricultural export prices gained 1.9% y-o-y, the highest rise since the record 3.1% growth for the year ending February 2023.
All outbound pricing for agri-food categories edged up by 0.5% month-on-month in April 2025, after a March decline.
Leading the way in the yearly export rate growth were extra-agricultural goods such as fish and distilled beverages, by 9.1%. Despite showing high annual appreciation, this category recorded -0.1% monthly depreciation between March and April 2025.
Export rates for human food (e.g. crops and meat), feeds, and non-distilled drinks grew by 3.8%. On a monthly basis, this category improved its export pricing by 0.6% from March 2025.
While agricultural industrial material export prices declined by a massive -9.3% y-o-y, their non-agricultural counterparts gained 2.4%.
Driving this generally good performance were fruit and nut selling rates, which overcame lackluster soybeans.
Bilateral Export Overview
On a country basis, U.S.’ exports to China, including non-agricultural, gained 0.7% in the year ending April 2025 just before tariffs.
All import prices into the U.S. from China shed 0.1% in April 2025 month-on-month, courtesy low production costs at origin.
Meanwhile, U.S.’ export prices to Canada before tariffs upped by 1.1% y-o-y while import rates dipped by -0.1%.
The American all-commodity export prices to Mexico also rose by 0.1% while the import equivalents declined by -0.3%.
Now the question remains as to whether this price growth will sustain from May 2025 onward, after tariffs. To learn more on the historical American agricultural export prices, peruse the statistics below.
American Agricultural Export Prices Statistics
According to the Federal Bank of St. Louis, the U.S.’ agricultural export prices have been showing lows and highs in three decades. The prices rose from a low of 96.3 index points in August 2000 to a high of 265.3 index points in February 2022. The following table explores key highlights of agricultural export prices, especially in the most volatile years.
| Year-and-Month | U.S.’ Agricultural Export Price Index |
| April 2025 | 230.6 points |
| May 2022 | 265.2 points |
| Aug 2010 | 176.1 points |
| Feb 2016 | 174.7 points |
| Feb 2013 | 229.1 points |
| Dec 2008 | 150.8 points |
| Aug 2008 | 188.2 points |
| Aug 2000 | 96.3 points |
| May 1996 | 143.9 points |
| Feb 1990 | 105.2 points |
How has agricultural export value in the U.S. performed in recent years?
According to data by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2022 performed best in the 2019-24 period, with exports worth $195.68 billion. Between 2019 and 2022, the agricultural export value grew annually from a 2019 base of $141.082 billion. Returns would then retract in 2023 to $173.17 billion and 2024 to $174.98 billion.