**California citrus growers and marketers say the current navel orange crop looks promising in volume and quality, one season after one of their smallest crops in years.

This year, California Citrus Mutual estimates navel orange production will be up about 10%, but lower than an earlier forecast which predicted it to be up 19%.

An early September heat wave is being blamed for the crop falling short.

**Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last week to discuss a looming decree that would ban imports of biotech corn into the country by 2024.

Afterwards, Vilsack said, we must find a way forward soon and I emphasized in no uncertain terms that, absent an acceptable resolution, the U.S. Government would be forced to consider all options, including formal steps to enforce legal rights under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

**China imported more than $205 billion of agricultural products in 2021, including more than $37 billion from the U.S.

But, USDA’s Economic Research Service says trade barriers deterred China's imports from reaching higher levels.

China's import barriers create "price wedges," in which domestic prices for ag commodities, like beef, corn, pork, and wheat, are higher than world price.

ERS recently found removing price wedges would lead to increased ag imports for those commodities.

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