By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, Sept 26 (Reuters) – The relocation of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) to Kansas City, from Washington, D.C., will not delay closely watched monthly crop reports, the USDA’s chief economist said on Thursday.
Politico reported earlier this week that staff attrition due to the move could limit the breadth and depth of the ERS commodity outlook analysis “for considerable time,” citing an internal staff memo.
But most of the input from the ERS into the USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports comes from staff staying in Washington, USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson told Reuters. He said that researchers in Kansas City will be able to participate via teleconference or travel.
The USDA’s monthly report is regarded by traders as the gold standard for global crop forecasts. Its release, on or around the 10th of each month, can jolt Chicago Board of Trade grain and soy futures and set price direction.
“There will be no change in WASDE timing or content as a result of ERS relocation,” Johansson wrote in an email.
The relocation plan, unveiled last year, would move 547 workers for the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and its National Institute of Food and Agriculture divisions to Kansas City by September. Those services provide data used to make policy decisions, and support research on a wide range of issues affecting agriculture.
“The only reports that might be affected would be those that are specifically published by ERS on their website, such as potentially various research reports and the commodity outlook reports that follow the WASDE a few days later,” said Mark Jekanowski, acting chairman of USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board, which produces the monthly WASDE reports.
“Neither the WASDE nor any of the NASS (USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service) reports would face any kind of delay,” Jekanowski told Reuters in an email.
Press officials from the USDA’s Economic Research Service were not immediately available for comment.
The USDA has said moving the ERS would save taxpayers nearly $300 million over 15 years and bring the divisions closer to farmers, but critics have said it is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to weaken science. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
