US – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has announced the launch of a new electronic data platform to deliver market price information to the commodities industry.
The new web-based platform, Market Analysis and Reporting Services (MARS), uses state-of-the-art technology to present detailed data sets in a more customer-focused way to better support competitive markets for producers and help stabilize food prices for American families.
“USDA Market News is the most relied upon source of unbiased agricultural market data,” said Greg Ibach, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.
“USDA’s on-site market reporters gather, analyse and publish unbiased data all day long to ensure fair food prices for consumers across the country and around the world.
The MARS project applies the best data management practices to make that data available when and where farmers, packers and processors need it.”
USDA staff is using the latest technologies available to deliver efficient services and customer-focused service in the federal government.
MARS improves the transparency, speed and accuracy of USDA Market News, and facilitates the flow of data from more than 3,600 markets to AMS analysts and ultimately to producers, industry and the public.
The new dynamic interface provides data analysts’ one-stop instant access to agricultural commodity data through a searchable database with the ability to create custom reports, data sets and data visualizations to make large amounts of information more easily understandable in a fraction of the time.
It may also be of use to businesses to utilize the built-in application program interface (API) to use the data to create new uses for the data as customer needs evolve.
Market News information for dairy products will be the first set of data and reports available through MARS followed by Cotton and Tobacco, scheduled for April 2018.
