Prices for American agricultural exports were up 5.7% in July from a year earlier, the largest 12-month increase since 2022.
A rise that size normally reads as a good year for grain growers. Drought across parts of the Midwest cut the number of bushels those prices would be paid on, and the fuel and fertilizer bills came first.
"It's still not going to be a fantastic year financially."
Frayne Olson is a professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, and the farm in the report is a working one: Ben Brown's family was finishing its corn harvest in west-central Missouri as the piece was filed.
I listened to the full segment so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 takeaways that matter.
👤 Speakers: Frayne Olson, professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University; Ben Brown, senior research associate at the University of Missouri's Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, whose family farms in west-central Missouri; Cortney Cowley, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
🎙️ Host: Kimberly Adams, who presents the Marketplace Morning Report from Washington
👥 Also on: Caitlin Tan, the Marketplace reporter who filed the farm report
📰 Published: 1 September 2026 on marketplace.org (Marketplace Morning Report)
🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Show notes | ⏱️ 6 min
Key Takeaways
Agricultural export prices rose 5.7% in July, the largest 12-month increase since 2022 The figure is the program's own lead, read from federal data
A price rise only reaches a farm that has a crop to sell, and drought cut Midwest yields
Even an above-average harvest would not make this a good year financially
Fertilizer and fuel costs rose after the start of the Iran war, and diesel is near record highs at harvest Harvest is when combines, tractors and big trucks are in use
What makes the year hard to plan is not the price level but not knowing where costs go next
Tariffs can take back what higher export prices give The top buyers named are Mexico and Canada
Shein listed in Hong Kong at closer to $27B, against about $100B when it was worth most
1. Export prices at a high
Kimberly Adams opened the program with the July export-price data and handed it to a reporter to test against working farms.
The lead figure is the show's own, read from federal data: agricultural export prices rose 5.7% in July, the largest 12-month increase since 2022. "The latest federal data shows prices for American agricultural exports were up 5.7% in July, the largest 12-month increase since 2022."
The harvest those prices met came in early, and the weather is why. Ben Brown, whose family was wrapping up its corn harvest in west-central Missouri, said: "Harvest came early, largely due to the dryness in August and July." Caitlin Tan said drought in parts of the Midwest is causing lower crop yields
Tan set up the rest of the report with the question the price data raises: "So can higher export prices save the day for farm revenues?"
2. Not enough crop to sell
Olson's answer, as Tan reported it, was that a higher price does less work than it looks like it should.
High crop prices are welcome news, Olson said, but they can only help so much if a farm does not have a lot of crops to sell.
Even a harvest above the average would not change the financial result. "It's still not going to be a fantastic year financially."
Higher export prices raise what a bushel fetches. The drought decides how many bushels there are to sell at that price
3. Diesel near record highs
The cost side of the farm ledger moved before the price side did.
Fertilizer and fuel costs skyrocketed after the start of the Iran war, Tan said.
Diesel prices are near record highs, and they are high just in time for harvest season Harvest is the stretch when combines, tractors and big trucks are doing the work
4. Costs make planning hard
Cortney Cowley of the Kansas City Fed said the rising costs create uncertainty for farmers in the year ahead. "Not knowing where prices might be next month or in a year, I think that just makes planning difficult."
Farmers also have to weigh what trade with top buyers, such as Mexico and Canada, might look like
Even if crop export prices are higher, tariffs could still hit farm revenues
5. Shein's $27B debut
Adams said the ultra-fast fashion company Shein started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that day
The company listed at a fraction of what it was once worth. "Once worth about $100 billion, the company went public with a value closer to $27 billion."
Bonus Insights
Olson answered the segment's central question with a joke before he answered it. "Well, the two favorite words in my English language are it depends."
The program's method was to take a federal statistic to the farms it is supposed to describe. Adams said Marketplace's Caitlin Tan "checked in with some farmers to see how that data is playing out in real life"
The report's bottom line is that the largest rise in agricultural export prices since 2022 is reaching farms that have fewer bushels to sell and higher fuel and fertilizer bills to pay.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Shein (The ultra-fast fashion company whose Hong Kong listing Adams reported, at a value closer to $27 billion against about $100 billion when it was worth most)
Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Where Shein's shares started trading on the morning of the broadcast)
Books & Resources Mentioned
Export prices up 8.2 percent from July 2025 to July 2026 (The federal release the program's opening figure comes from, which puts the agricultural component at 5.7%)
Crop export prices are up. Are farmers reaping the benefits? (Caitlin Tan's written version of the farm report, which names each source in full)
What Shein's IPO means for customers (The program's own write-up of the Shein item, by Kimberly Adams and Ariana Rosas)
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