CoBank Quarterly: Supply Chain Disruptions Expected to Persist
Oct 18 2021
Entering the final quarter of 2021, the U.S. economy and rural industries seem to be transitioning into yet another phase of the COVID pandemic. As the delta variant surge subsides, and the economic recovery continues at a healthy pace, businesses of all sizes and across most industries are wrestling with perhaps the worst supply chain bottlenecks to date.
Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages are adding significant costs to business operations, and consumers will feel these effects through higher prices for months to come, according to the new Quarterly report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange.
Rapidly rising input costs and product shortages are hitting agriculture particularly hard, as ag commodity prices have flattened and inflation compresses margins. However, robust exports have kept much of agriculture in the black. The USDA currently projects that China will import $39 billion of U.S. ag products in 2022, up from an estimated $37 billion in 2021. While that forecast looks promising, success will be much more dependent on prices remaining high as volume is likely to fall.