According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 2000 and 2013 U.S. exports of fruit, grain, meat, and dairy have almost tripled to $140.9 billion because of growing demand from emerging markets with increasingly wealthy and expanding middle classes. During that same time period U.S. agricultural sales to developing countries increased 250% and currently two thirds of all U.S. agricultural exports go to developing nations. In 2013 China was the largest buyer of U.S. agricultural goods at $23.5 billion followed by Canada with $21.4 billion. As China, with the world’s second largest economy shows signs of relaxing its policy for self-sufficiency in grain, its one child policy, and its restrictions on U.S. beef imports that have been in place since 2003, export opportunities could improve further for the U.S. grain, dairy and beef industries.
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