FAS updates country listings in online database

AgExporter, August, 2004 by Donald Washington

FAS is changing its country groupings in its online PSD (production, supply and distribution) database to reflect the expansion of the EU (European Union) from 15 to 25 countries. In addition to the EU-15 designation in the commodity tables, a new designation, EU-25, has been added to reflect EU expansion. The EU-15 shows data through 1998, and the new EU-25 includes data beginning in 1999. The country categories Eastern Europe and Other Western Europe are discontinued, and the remaining non-EU countries are rolled into Other Europe.

The PSD database covers 108 agricultural commodities in more than 190 countries. It is updated monthly and has historical data back to 1960. It provides users with a global picture of crop production broken down by commodity attributes, countries and years. Users can view all facets of the database onscreen or download data to a spreadsheet file. Pre-defined tables categorized by commodity groups are readily available, or users can customize queries for specific commodities.

The PSD database can be found on the FAS Web site at: www.fas.usda.gov/psd. In addition to this database, FAS also maintains trade databases with import and export statistics for bulk, intermediate and consumer-oriented products. Links to all of these databases are located at: www.fas.usda.gov/data.html. For further information or help, e-mail: PSDOnline@fas.usda.gov

FAS public affairs specialist Donald Washington is at (202) 720-3101; E-mail: Donald.Washington@usda.gov