Farmers in southern Illinois say drought, high costs and China’s trade restrictions are pushing soybean profits below average this season.
chairman donald trump It accused China of committing “economically hostile” acts by cutting soybean purchases and said it was considering ending US trade with China involving cooking oil and other goods in response.
“I believe China is intentionally not buying our soybeans and creating hardship for our soybean farmers, an economically hostile act,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “We are considering ending trade related to cooking oil and other elements of trade with China as a retaliation.
“For example, we can easily produce cooking oil ourselves, we do not need to buy it from China,” he said.
This comment of Trump has come amid the ongoing controversy regarding trade. China This is creating serious headwinds for U.S. farmers as soybean producers lose access to the world’s largest market for the commodity.
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Soybeans are loaded onto a truck before being taken to a grain elevator in Dwight, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/Getty Images)
China stopped buying U.S. soybeans in the spring in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs. The move appears to be a means for China to gain leverage in trade negotiations by shifting its purchases away from US producers to countries such as Brazil and Argentina.
Data from the American Soybean Association (ASA) shows that China is the world’s leading importer of soybeans, bringing in 61% of the world’s soybean supply over the past five marketing years.
The ASA said the US has historically served as the primary supplier of soybeans to China, exporting an average of 28% of farmers’ crops to China before the 2018 trade war.
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Farmers across Illinois are storing more soybeans this season, waiting for prices to improve as exports remain low. (Oliviana Calmes/Fox News)
This number dropped to a low of 11% in the crop year 2018-19, though it improved during the pandemic and reached 31% in 2020-21. But from 2023-24, the percentage falls again to 22%.
“We rely on trade with other countries, especially China, to buy our soybeans,” Brad Arnold, a multi-generation soybean farmer in southwestern Missouri, told Fox Business in an interview earlier this month.
He said China’s ban on US soybean purchases “has had a huge impact on our trade and our profits.”
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in Beijing in 2017. (Thomas Peter-Poole/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Scott Gerlt, ASA’s chief economist, said in an interview with Fox Business that soybean farmers will need business assistance Time for harvesting will be given soon.
Gerlt said that while older farmers who own their own land or equipment may not need as much, younger farmers who have to rent their farmland and have operating notes are facing much greater risk.
“It is better to have trustworthy trading partners in the long run. Trade assistance can help farmers in the short term, keeping them in business and getting through to next year,” he said. “But the problem is that if we’re not in the market right now, that’s just another signal South America To keep expanding.”
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Gerlt said South American soybean producers in Argentina and Brazil could take advantage of China’s demand for soybeans amid the country’s trade dispute with the United States, which could have long-term impacts on U.S. farmers.
On Tuesday, Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence asked Trump if he thought China was trying to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Argentina by buying soybeans from Argentina, not American farmers.
“I would say so,” Trump said. “China likes to make wedges.”
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Trump later said, “I mean, I think it’s natural. It’s China, and it’s natural.” “But, ultimately, it wouldn’t mean anything.”
Fox Business’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
