USDA Debuts New Commodities Price Data Platform

A new market price data platform for the commodities industry, Market Analysis and Reporting Services (MARS), was introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on Jan. 31, providing a new customer-centric method to access data on commodities prices.

“USDA’s on-site market reporters gather, analyze, and publish unbiased data all day long to ensure fair food prices for consumers across the country and around the world,” USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach said in a statement. “The MARS project applies the best data management practices to make that data available when and where farmers, packers, and processors need it.”

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The new data platform offers faster, more transparent, and accurate data from USDA Market News, according to AMS, offering figures from 3,600 markets analyzed by USDA reporters. Users can also search a database to create custom reports, data sets, and visualizations. A built-in application program interface (API) enables users to create new uses for the data that suit their individual needs.

Market News information on dairy products will become available through MARS on Feb. 2, with cotton and tobacco data slotted to become active in April 2018. AMS will announce plans to add data on poultry, grain, and specialty crops at a later date.

To view the new MARS platform, visit the USDA’s My Market News portal.

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