Trade is always a top-of-mind issue for growers and industry leaders, and it can keep the industry on its toes as it is constantly changing. Bill Lane, executive director of Trade for America, gave his opinion on what the trade environment is going to look like in 2019 during his presentation at the recent Flower and Vegetable Seed Conference held in Orlando, Florida.
According to Lane, in 2018 there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding trade. There was a drop of exports and a surge in imports. He expects another year of trade uncertainty in 2019. Surges of imports will most likely continue as tariffs are threatened, and a new Congress may impact agreements like the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
His advice to agriculturalists: Learn to be flexible and be ready for anything. “You’re going to have to practice some of your inventory approaches in a different way than what you learned in MBA school,” he says. “There’s going to be less ‘just-in-time’ inventory systems and more ‘just-in-case’ inventory systems.”
Hear more from Lane:
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