Latest figures from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest that U.S. agricultural exports grew under the Biden administration.

As president-elect Donald Trump gets ready to return to the White House for a second time on Monday (January 20) the latest report from USDA shows that 2024 was a "banner year" for US agricultural trade with $8.8 billion dollars in potential new market opportunities.

On his election campaign trail Trump repeatedly promised to introduce trade tariffs of 10-20% on imports from all countries and a tariff of 60% on goods from China from day one in office.

These moves by Trump have sparked concerns not just among many American farmers who were worried about retaliatory tariffs but also from America's key trading partners.

The chief executive of Bord Bia, Jim O'Toole, has warned that "increasingly protectionist" policies by various political leaders including Donald Trump pose "a range of economic and strategic risks for Ireland".

Under the Biden administration U.S. agricultural exports totalled about $196 billion in 2022 and almost $175 billion in 2023.

Outgoing Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Alexis M. Taylor described this as not just a win for US farmer but "a win for every American who values the strength of our agricultural sector.”

Outgoing Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had placed a strong emphasis on expanding agriculture exports during his term of office.

Previously in 2023 the USDA had committed $1.3 billion dollars to expand export promotion activities for U.S. agricultural commodities including specialty crops.

In addition to this the USDA's Regional Agricultural Promotion Program allocated $300 million to support 66 projects focused on expanding U.S agricultural exports.

As Donald Trump takes the reigns of power again in Washington many farm groups are now calling for a new and updated Farm Bill.

The last version of the bill was passed under the previous Trump administration in 2018, and the most recent version has faced a two year delay on the house floor.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation president, Zippy Duvall, the new administration must now address the impending tax hikes, which he said would "crush many of America’s farmers and ranchers when stacked on top of inflation, high supply costs and market instability".

One other key issue on US farmers’ minds is "labor shortage and skyrocketing costs" according to Duvall.

Another campaign promise by Donald Trump revolved around the possibility of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants from the day he takes office.

However, it has been estimated that undocumented immigrants could make up almost half of all farm workers in the US while another 10% are on temporary visas according to the USDA.

The 47th president of the US might also want to take a look at foreign ownership of U.S land for agricultural use when he returns to the White House .

It is estimated that this increased by 1.6 million acres in 2023 to a total of over 45.9 million acres.