NMPF Urges USDA to Implement Product Inventory Reporting
June 1, 2010
NMPF Urges USDA to Implement Product Inventory Reporting
In a December 4, 2009 letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, NMPF asked the agency to implement the mandatory product inventory reporting program required by a law passed nearly a decade ago. The request to USDA was prompted by the revelation that the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service made unexpected revisions to its estimate of cheese inventories, raising concerns that market prices may have been depressed by inaccurate data.
NMPF’s analysis was that the reporting errors didn’t have a significant impact on farm-level prices, but the episode again raised concerns about the inadequacy of the current reporting system, which relies on unaudited and voluntary surveys, despite a decade-old statute calling for mandatory dairy product inventory reporting.
NMPF’s letter urged the USDA to direct the Agricultural Marketing Service to undertake the mandatory dairy product inventory reporting program required by law, using the full electronic reporting program for prices and inventories that is authorized by the same statute.
