US soybean farmers, abandoned by great Chinese buyers, scrambling for other importers
Trading mission to Nigeria. Memorandum Understanding with Vietnam. The surge in purchases from Bangladesh.
These countries are usually not the main customer of the soybean from the US Agricultural Belt. But farmers who were desperate, their trade organizations and President Donald Trump’s government turned to the corner of the world that was far away in the hope of preventing disasters for agriculture from a trade war that made China not buy US supplies.
Efforts so far have failed to compensate for the loss of the largest customer in the country for plants, data, and interviews showing, with financial pain extending to tractor makers and other agricultural businesses.
For the first time in more than 20 years, Chinese importers have not bought soybeans from the autumn US harvest, forcing farmers to store their plants in the hope that prices will eventually rise from about five years. This is a risk that delays their ability to bring money from the sale of plants when they face an increase in costs for everything, ranging from labor and energy to fertilizer.
In a sign that the difficult period is expected to continue in the countryside, Trump has promised to provide the results of tariff income to farmers, which mostly supports his campaign for the president.
On Thursday, US Finance Minister Scott Besent said the government would make an announcement on Tuesday regarding support for farmers.
The Tit-For-Tat tariff worn by Washington and Beijing on their respective goods this year has made us soybeans too expensive for Chinese buyers, which caused importers to buy from South America instead.
But the alternative market for small US exports as a comparison and has not replaced China, the long time the largest importer in the world so far.
Acute crisis for soybean Illinois farmers
This crisis is very acute in Illinois, the biggest US soybean and exporting state.
About 60 miles (97 km) in the west of Chicago, where cities and suburbs began to give way to green fields, farmers Ryan Frieders, 49, will store a lot of nuts in the trash after previously selling several expected harvests at prices below production costs.
After months of working, including planting seeds, fostering fields and spraying weeds, Illinois farmers face losses of up to $ 8 per hectare thanks to low crop prices and weak exports, according to the University of Illinois.
US soybean exports to China fell 39% volume to 5.9 million metric tons from January to July, before the autumn harvest begins, the latest government data shows. In grades, shipping sank 51% to $ 2.5 billion, robbing farmers from billions of dollars.
The US made a large increase in exports to Bangladesh with more than 400,000 tons, a small portion of typical Chinese demand. Despite the increase in shipping to Vietnam, Egypt, Thailand and Malaysia, total US soybean exports fell 8% by the volume from the same period a year ago to 18.9 million tons.
Together with industrial officials, Frieders, who farm in Waterman, Illinois, traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia in February to meet with buyers and processing visits on a journey sponsored by the US soybean export council trading group.
“There are talks about India and developing there, and Southeast Asia, and North Africa: it is a future market,” Frieders said, added, “There is no missing market that we have not yet seen that suddenly can explode and become a new China.”
The soybean industry seeks to increase trade
US Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins said on social media in September that Taiwan was committed to $ 10 billion in the purchase of US agriculture for the next four years, including soybeans. He called commitment as “game-changer,” but it was misleading: such commitments would not represent improvements.
The US exports US agricultural products worth $ 3.8 billion to Taiwan in 2024, according to US data. If the same sales rate continues for four years, it will reach $ 15 billion.
The US Department of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comments about Rollins’s statement.
Industrial groups have also tried to increase US exports.
During the trading mission in June, jointly sponsored by the US Soybean Export Council, the Minister of Agriculture Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding to buy more than $ 1.4 billion in US agricultural products, including soybeans, the council said.
The council also met with Nigerian importers and soybean processors in June to promote trade, hoping to build 64,000 simple metric tons sent there last year, according to the US mission in Nigeria. In August, the US mission in Nigeria said that he also joined the American soybean association at a graduation ceremony involving aquaculture, an industry that could use soybeans as fish food.
However, until July, the US did not export soybeans to Nigeria this year, according to US data.
Illinois hosted agricultural buyers from Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico and the Dominican Republic in the annual agricultural tour and plant handling facilities in August.
The US did not export soybeans to Peru until July, while Nicaragua and El Salvador bought the amount that could be ignored, US data showed. Exports are mostly flat to Mexico and to the Dominican Republic.
Farmers hope for efforts to pay dividends in the long run, even though they are struggling now.
China dominates the import of global soybeans
With more than 1.4 billion people and the largest swarm in the world, China is difficult to be replaced as a soybean buyer. This has imported an average of 61% of the soybean supply traded in the world over the past five years, more than the whole world which is combined, according to the American soybean association.
In 2024, the US exported nearly 27 million metric tons of soybeans to China and 5 million metric tons to Mexico, the second largest buyer.
“Soybean farmers in our country are being hurt because of China, only to ‘negotiate’ reasons, not buying,” Trump wrote on social truth on Wednesday. He said soybeans would be the main topic of discussion when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in four weeks.
China’s business is now going to South America, as happened during the last Trump trading war.
Last month, US soybeans were around 80 cents to 90 cents cheaper than Brazilian soybeans for shipping in September or October, but the 23% China tariff on US shipping added $ 2 per bushel to the cost for importers, traders said.
In Argentina, the government of President Javier Milei briefly suspended export tax on soybeans in September, captivating Chinese buyers who quickly ordered cargo, traders said.
The agreement was angry for US farmers who came out of China when Bessent said Washington was negotiating to support Milei, Trump’s allies, financially with a $ 20 billion exchange path for Argentina.
“Frustration is extraordinary,” said Caleb Ragland, 39, a Kentucky farmer and President of the American soybean association.
China’s absence in the market spilled with others
The decline in revenue from crop production has spilled into other aspects in the countryside.
CNH CNH equipment manufacturer, which sells tractors and combines, said net sales in their agricultural business fell 20% in six months ended on June 30, compared to the previous year.
“The good news only came when China really began to order,” CNH CEO Gerrit Marx said in an August interview at the Farm Progress Show at Decatur, Illinois.
Decatur, home to the ADM American Archer-Daniels-Midland headquarters, was previously known as the world soybean capital because of its processing industry, said Mayie Mayor Moore Wolfe.
At the Farm Progress Show, when asked where the new soybean capital, the mayor dropped his voice on a whisper.
“Maybe Brazil,” he said.
Source: Reuters
