Agricultural trade vital for Southern states, despite complex trade routes. FAS data highlights Louisiana as top exporter, while ERS shows Texas leads in value. Agricultural trade has certainly been a major topic among farmers and farm organizations recently amidst declining U.S. ag exports, a new era of ag trade deficits, and disappointment over trade policy. Dating back to colonial days, trade has been a major part of the Southern agricultural economy.Historically, the Southern region has produced, marketed and shipped various unique Southern commodities such as tobacco, rice, cotton and sugar, along with grains, livestock products, fruits and vegetables to markets around the globe.How important is agricultural trade to various Southern states today?  In reality, individual state or regional trade data are difficult to measure since agricultural production, processing and trade can occur in multiple states and/or regions.USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) relies on data from census where U.S. ag exports by state or region are based on the final origin of movement of the product to the export market. Given a large volume of U.S. grain shipped out of New Orleans, the FAS methodology results in Louisiana being the nation’s largest  ag exporting state, despite the vast majority of these grains being produced in other states.FAS export data will generally understate the relative importance of international markets for inland states. Over the past five years (2019-2023), the FAS database ranks the Southern region as the leading ag exporting region with 38% of the value of U.S. agricultural exports, followed by the Western region (31%), Midwestern region (25%) and the Northeastern region (5%).  According to the FAS database, five of the eight largest U.S. agricultural ports by volume are located in the Southern region which accounted for 60% of U.S. ag export volume over the past five years, with New Orleans being the largest ag port accounting for 36% of U.S. ag export volume and 18% of U.S. ag export value.Alternatively, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) measures trade data by state based on the state’s share of production value (cash receipts). Using the ERS methodology, within the southern region Texas recorded the largest value of agricultural exports over the past five years, averaging $6.9 billion of ag exports annually (ranks 6th nationally), followed by North Carolina ($3.9 billion), Arkansas (3.5 billion), Florida ($3.4 billion), Georgia ($3.1 billion) and Kentucky ($2.7 billion). Regionally, the ERS database ranks the Midwestern region as the largest exporting region with 48.1% of U.S. ag exports over the past five years, compared to only 23.2% for the Southern region, reflecting a large percentage of the U.S. agriculture initially produced in the Midwest, but exported out of other regions.