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United States Department of Agriculture
Foreign Agricultural Service
 

Processed Food Export Groups Help

 

What are the Processed Food Export Groups?
 

Baby BICO Database Codes

Processed food products tend to go across previously established categories and include a few items considered non-agricultural. Otherwise useful means of measuring U.S. food exports, such as the Bulk, Intermediate, and Consumer-Oriented (BICO) classification, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) classification, and the Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United States (FATUS) classification pose limitations when looking at U.S. exports of processed food products. Numerous Harmonized Trade System (HS) codes need to be added and deleted to get meaningful data about processed foods.

The processed food Baby BICO aggregates particular 10 digit codes representing processed food products in Schedule B of the United States Harmonized Trade System under which all U.S. trade data are originally collected by the Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Using aggregations that are meaningful to both professionals in the food industry and the public, processed food products and ingredients are assigned to 15 categories within the Baby BICO. Each category has at least five and as many as 14 subcategories of products that can be examined.

Contact: Dorsey Luchok, Processed Products Division, 720-3083.

 
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How do I get the data?
 

To create a valid query, users need to select a set of criteria on which to base the query. A selection of the following information types must be chosen to create a query:

  1. Select Country Information


    • Individual Countries and Pre-grouped Regions

    • Users can select one or more countries and/or pre-grouped Country Regions from the Countries box. When selecting multiple entries from the Countries box, use the Shift or Control keys in the Standard Windows manner
    • User-created Country Summary

    • Users can create their own Country grouping or summary. By selecting multiple entries in the Countries box and clicking on the Summarize Countries field and providing a name for the summary, the users can collapse their entries into one summary line item.


  2. Select Commodity Information


    • Select Individual or Pre-grouped Commodities

    • Users can select one or more commodity entries from the Commodities box. When selecting multiple entries, use the Shift or Control keys in the Standard Windows manner
    • User-created commodity summary

    • Users can create their own Commodity grouping or summary. By selecting multiple entries in the Commodities box and clicking on the Summarize Commodities field and providing a name for the summary, the users can collapse all selected entries into one summary line item.


  3. Select Date Range


  4. Selecting Ending Year Date Range: The time period covered for a query is indicated by selecting the Ending Year date range of the most recent month/year time period that will be covered in the query. For example, if a user is requesting a five year report for calendar years 1995 - 1999, she will indicate the time period by selecting 1999 and 01 (in the From field) and 1999 and 12 (in the To field). This selection indicates to the system that the final column of the output will contain information from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 1999.

  5. Report Format


  6. Ten output formats are currently available. The format type, combined with the end year information supplied by the user, determines the overall time period of the query and the layout of the output. When a user selects January 1999 - December 1999 as the Ending Year Date Range and then selects Two Year as her report format choice, the output covers calendar years 1998 and 1999. Had a seven year format choice been made, the output would cover calendar years 1993 - 1999. The 8 available formats are:

    • BICO Format - FAS's standard BICO format (5 years of data with a 2 year comparison; primary sort by country)
    • BICO Q&V - FAS's standard BICO format (5 years of quantities and values with a 2 year comparison; primary sort by country)
    • BICO Product - FAS's standard BICO Product format (5 years of data with a 2 year comparison; primary sort by product)
    • Monthly - displays data in monthly increments
    • Two Year - provides two years of either Quantity and Value data based on the End year indicated by the user
    • Five Year - provides five years of either Quantity or Value data based on the End year indicated by the user
    • Five Year Q&V - provides five years of both Quantity and Value data based on the End year indicated by the user
    • Seven Year - provides seven years of either Quantity or Value data based on the End year indicated by the user
    • Ten Year - provides 10 years of either Quantity or Value data based on the End year indicated by the user

  7. Order


    • Sort by Commodity/Country - indicates that the output's primary sort will be by commodity with a secondary sort performed on the countries under each selected commodity.
    • Sort by Country/Commodity - indicates that the output's primary sort will be by country with a secondary sort performed on the commodities under each selected country.

  8. Include


    • All - include all values that fit the parameters selected in the final output
    • Top 10 - include only the top 10 rows that fit the parameters selected in the final output
    • Top 20 - include only the top 20 rows that fit the parameters selected in the final output
    • Top 50 - include only the top 50 rows that fit the parameters selected in the final output

  9. Summary


  10. The Summary field indicates the level of detail that data will be displayed in the final output. There are three Summary options available:

    • Summary - Displays data at the user-selected level. The row in the final output will be displayed at the data group level selected by the user.
    • CN Detail (Country Detail) - Country region(s) and group(s) are displayed at the individual country level
    • CM Detail (Commodity Detail) - Commodity group information is displayed at the commodity component-level of the group

  11. Statistic


  12. The Statistic field is used to indicate whether the final report should contain Value, Quantity, CIF Value (Imports Only) or Unit Value (FATUS and HS-10 Only) information.

    • Value - Denotes that the output will be the Monetary Value of trade (dollars).
    • Quantity - The output will be the Volume of trade, e.g., metric tons.

  13. Value


    • Thousands - Displays the monetary value in thousands of dollars
    • Dollars - Displays the monetary value in single dollar amounts.

  14. Output


    • Off - Output file will not be saved to disk.
    • On - Report - Used to indicate that the user wishes to save the output file (as a delimited file) to disk. Duplicated data is omitted.
    • On - Data - Used to indicate that the user wishes to save the output file (as a delimited file) to disk. Duplicate data is included.

  15. Border


  16. By turning the Border "ON" (the default is off) a border will be displayed on the rows and columns of the report. The appearance will be similar to that of a spreadsheet.

    • On - Borders will be displayed
    • Off - Borders will NOT be displayed

  17. Create The Report


  18. When you have completed your selections click on the "Submit Request" button directly above the year range selection box on the right side of the page.

Click on the "Home" menu item from any Processed Food Export Group Page.

 
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What HS Codes are in the Commodity Groupings?
 

The Processed Food Commodity Groups contain all codes which makeup the standard commodity groupings which appear on the Processed Foods reports. The commodity codes are derived from the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) to the 6-digit level for generalized categories. The U.S. defines products using 10-digit HTS codes. Exports codes (which the U.S. calls Schedule B) are administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. Import codes are administered by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).

For a list of the commodities in the groups click on the group name of interest.

Click on the "Commodities" menu item from any Processed Food Export Group Page.

 
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What Countries are in the Country Groupings?
 

The Processed Food Country Groups contain all country codes which makeup the standard regional country groupings which are derived from Schedule C, U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division Classification Schedules , for use in compiling U.S. export and import statistics.

For a list of the countries in the groups click on the group name of interest.

Click on the "Countries" menu item from any Processed Food Export Group Page.

 
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When is new data available?
 

The official release of the export data by the Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division occurs at 8:30am (Eastern Time) on the dates specified on the release page. For security reasons, the Processed Food data will not be available until approximately 12:00 noon (Eastern Time).

Click on the "Release" menu item from any Processed Food Export Group Page.

 
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