Shein makes its stock market debut

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**Kimberly Adams** (0:31)
A check in on American agriculture and a fast fashion giant has its stock market debut.
From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. The latest federal data shows prices for American agricultural exports were up 5.7% in July, the largest 12-month increase since 2022 Marketplace's Caitlin Tan checked in with some farmers to see how that data is playing out in real life.

**Caitlin Tan** (0:56)
Ben Brown's family is wrapping up their corn harvest in west central Missouri.

**Ben Brown** (1:01)
Harvest came early, largely due to the dryness in August and July.

**Caitlin Tan** (1:06)
Drought in parts of the Midwest is causing lower crop yields. So can higher export prices save the day for farm revenues?

**Frayne Olson** (1:15)
Well, the two favorite words in my English language are, it depends.

**Caitlin Tan** (1:18)
North Dakota State University's Frayne Olson says high crop prices are welcome news, but it can only help so much if you don't have a lot of crops to sell. And even if harvest is above average, it's still not going to be a fantastic year financially. After all, fertilizer and fuel costs skyrocketed after the start of the Iran War. And diesel prices are near record highs just in time for harvest season, where combines, tractors and big trucks are key.
Courtney Cowley with the Kansas City Fed says those rising costs create uncertainty for farmers in the year ahead.

**Courtney Cowley** (1:54)
Not knowing where prices might be next month or in a year, I think that just makes planning difficult.

**Caitlin Tan** (2:02)
Cowley says farmers also have to weigh what trade with top buyers like Mexico and Canada might look like. Even if crop export prices are higher, tariffs could still hit farm revenues.
I'm Caitlin Tan for Marketplace.

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**Kimberly Adams** (4:09)
Ultra-fast fashion company, Shein, started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today. Once worth about $100 billion, the company went public with a value closer to $27 billion.
For more on this, we're joined by Ken Pucker, former chief operating officer at shoe and apparel retailer Timberland. He now teaches business at Dartmouth and Tufts University. Ken, welcome.

**Ken Pucker** (4:30)
Thanks for having me.

**Kimberly Adams** (4:32)
The Shein IPO has been years in the making. The company first tried to go public in 2020 Why did it take so long?

**Ken Pucker** (4:40)
You're right. It is years in the making. They first tried in New York, then London, and now have successfully gone public in Hong Kong. They ran into challenges principally related to A, being a Chinese company, B, being a Chinese company that was supplying fashion at prices that undercut most local producers in different markets, and C, they had a series of challenges with issues related to the environment, and labor practices, privacy issues, and copyright issues as well. And so they became a target for lots of activists.