Those of us in the U.S. are often unaware of just how much the American dairy industry varies from much of the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons Farm Credit East has been a part of the International Farm Comparison Network for the past 10 years; to support their mission to better understand and forecast the dairy economy.
After a few years of market turmoil, the Northeast’s forest industry is showing signs of stability and some real opportunities for growth. We’re not out of the dark days yet, but the markets are providing returns for landowners and real efforts are underway to find the next generation of uses for our forest resource.
Exports have an important role in the economics for agriculture, commercial fishing and forest products, including here in the Northeast. Without access to international markets, all U.S. producers would have to market all of their products domestically, which could create increased supplies and lower prices.
In a nutshell, the outlook for the northeast forest products industry is stable for timberland owners, good for lumber markets, and fair to poor for residuals and biomass. Take a look at how housing starts, exports and energy markets are impacting the northeast forest products industry.