three-fifths had come from the Southern Hemisphere. This reflects no diminution in quantities imported (coffee imports, for example, in 1939 were at record levels), but rather the failure of the prices of the basic agricultural commodities entering Latin American export trade to respond to improving world economic conditions as rapidly as the less basic food products which the United States imports from other parts of the world.1

Table 1.-United States Imports of Food Products From Latin America
[In thousands of dollars]

Exports of food products from the United States to Latin America are considerably more diversified than our food imports from that area. During the past 15 years Cuba has consistently remained the leading Latin American outlet for United States food products, and during this period has become increasingly important.

For decades, wheat, wheat flour, and lard have been important items in United States food exports to Latin America. However, the highly diversified character of this trade is shown in table 2, which separately lists more than 75 classifications of products which in 1939 accounted for more than 90 percent of our food export trade to Latin America.2

1 See appendix A for tables showing imports of food products into the United States during the 4 selected years showing the value supplied by each Latin American area and the distribution of United States food imports from Latin America during 1939, by principal commodities and principal Latin American supplying countries.

See appendix A for table showing distribution of United States food exports to Latin America by countries for the 4 selected years.

Figure 2.-Principal Latin American suppliers of food products to the United States-1939.
Table 2.-United States Exports of Food Products to Latin America
[Values in thousands of dollars]

Table 2.-United States Exports of Food Products to Latin America—Continued

In the past 15 years from 20 to 25 percent of the United States total food export trade has gone to Latin America. Many of the items which constitute the remainder of the food export trade of the United States to other areas of the world are not susceptible to diversion to Latin American countries because of their character. England and a number of continental European countries have for years taken a large part of the food exports of the United States, since they must import staples to supplement the domestic output. With the less

Figure 3.-Distribution of food exports from the United States to Latin America-1939.

densely settled, typically agricultural countries of Latin America, demand is not for staples, but, with some few exceptions, largely for a wide variety of specialty items.

FOOD EXPORT TRADE OF THE TWENTY LATIN AMERICAN REPUBLICS 3

Combined exports of food products from the 20 Latin American Republics were in the neighborhood of $750,000,000 in 1938. Differences in classification make a complete tabulation of food exports

3 Statistics in this section are devoted only to the 20 Latin American Republics, whereas in other sections of this study the figures pertain to all of Latin America, including European possessions as well as the 20 Republics.

from each of the 20 Latin American Republics difficult, but during 1938 the export valuation of nine groups was $713,688,000, distributed as follows: Coffee $233,501,000; meats $124,137,000; sugar $115,704,000; wheat $61,438,000; corn $59,299,000; nuts, oils, chicle and extracts $37,739,000; cereals $32,059,000; bananas $28,139,000; and cocoa beans $21,672,000.

In 1938 the United States, the leading purchaser of food products from Latin America, took about 40 percent of the total; the United Kingdom took a little more than 20 percent; Germany, a little more than 10 per cent; and France, Belgium, and the Netherlands 3 percent each. On a value basis, the United States accounted for 57 percent of the coffee exported from Latin American Republics in 1938, 72 percent of the sugar, 80 percent of the bananas, and 67 percent of the cocoa beans. The United States also took a little more than half of the nuts, oils, chicle, and extracts shipped from these countries during the year.

The United Kingdom was the predominant buyer of meats in 1938, taking products valued at nearly $92,000,000 out of the total meat exports amounting to $124,000,000. England was also an important purchaser of sugar, corn, wheat and other cereals, nuts and oils, and to a lesser extent of coffee.

A maximum figure of 250 million dollars, annually, represents the value of food exports from the 20 Latin American Republics to continental Europe.

Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, combined, took more than one-fifth of total food exports from the 20 Latin American Republics in 1938. Included in this trade was coffee, valued at $57,000,000; corn, $27,000,000; wheat, $8,000,000; other cereals, $15,000,000; meats, $13,000,000; cocoa beans, more than $5,000,000; and nuts and oils, more than $5,000,000.

No study of inter-American foodstuffs trade at this time should overlook the surplus problems which have been created throughout Latin America, and indeed for many products within the United States, by the removal of many European markets as customers. Numerous agencies in every country of the Western Hemisphere are giving serious attention to problems which these surpluses have created. Of particular importance has been the cooperative action taken by the major coffee-producing countries of Latin America.

Since many European countries are now out of the market, most Latin American countries are looking to the United States to take greater quantities of their food products. Plans for greater economic independence within the Western Hemisphere are yet in too formative a stage for much to be said in a constructive way. For such items as coffee, cocoa beans, and bananas, the problem is not so great as with commodities such as meats, wheat, and corn, which are major items of production in the United States.

With the ever-increasing realization that the United States must enlarge its purchases from Latin America, particularly in the food line, since the greater part of Latin America is largely agricultural, it may be that in the future more attention can be given to commodities which are as yet relatively undeveloped, either with respect to production in Latin America or to the market possibilities in the United States. Outstanding among these might be the nut of the babassu palm,