Delay to new system for reporting US hide and leather exports
The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture has said delays to the launch of a new export sales reporting system mean it will not be able to publish data on agricultural-sector exports in the first half of September.
President of the Leather and Hide Council of America, Stephen Sothmann, has confirmed that the delay will affect reports on exports of hides and leather from the US.
FAS administrator, Daniel Whitley, said the service would be unable to publish its Thursday export sales data reports on September 1 or September 8, but he said he expected regular reporting to resume on September 15.
He explained that the new export sales reporting system is designed to assure data security and availability. It will provide a platform for greater automation of data collection in future.
“Data integrity, credibility, and transparency are top priorities for FAS,” Mr Whitley said. “The timely and accurate reporting of agricultural export sales data is vital to functioning markets.”
