Washington - Prices paid to farmers for their crops and livestock during July were unchanged from the previous month but were down almost 5% from the same month last year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
The USDA's farm products index had a July reading of 102, matching the index for June, but five points lower than July 1997.
The department said price increases in July from the previous month for broilers, tomatoes, lettuce and milk offset decreases for cattle, hogs, wheat and corn.
Farmers, legislators and government officials have expressed concern about sagging U.S. agricultural prices in the past few months as record harvests across the globe and declining demand in Asia push prices down for many commodities.
This month, President Clinton announced the United States will buy 2.5 million tonnes of U.S. wheat for donations overseas in an effort to help boost prices.
A subset of the price index, food grains, fell to 89, bringing that index to its lowest level since July 1991. Food grains prices were down more than 7% from June and were 20% below July 1997, the department said.
The food grain price index was dragged down by a 20-cent drop in wheat prices from June to $2.57 per bushel in July. Wheat prices in July were 66 cents below the same month a year ago, USDA said.
Soybean prices fell two cents from June to $6.13 per bushel, down $1.39 from July 1997, while July broiler prices rose to 43.2 cents per pound, up 2.9 cents from June, the department said.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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