American farmers push to boost China soybean sales

There is hope that soybean trade may be on the way back for U.S. farmers after President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

in that China International Import Fair Last week, an Illinois soybean farmer Scott Gaffner He said he came to Shanghai to save his China business.

“We want to make sure our soybeans are exported to China because that’s a very important market for us,” Member Gaffner said. U.S. Soybean Export Councilhe told CNBC.

Gaffner Family Farm usually sells 40% of its annual soybean exports to China, he said, but when he arrived in Shanghai, that figure was zero this year.

As part of the trade deal discussed between Trump and Xi in the South Korean port city of Busan in late October, China lifted retaliatory tariffs on some agricultural products. However, the US maintained its 13% tariff on soybeans.

The White House said China will purchase 12 million metric tons of soybeans by the end of this year and 25 million metric tons for each of the next three years.

This is still below the approximately 27 million metric tons China is purchasing in 2024. The country has yet to confirm the Trump administration’s figures.

“We want the smooth sailing to continue,” said Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council, at his group’s booth at the fair. “Do I think that’s realistic? I don’t know. These are two big, powerful countries and there are a lot of problems.”

American Chamber of Commerce President Eric Zheng (AmCham) told CNBC in Shanghai last week that the United States and China have stabilized the relationship for now, but “structural differences remain.”

Uncertainty is typical of the relationship between the two economic powers, but this time negotiations on soybean purchases are being concluded with more urgency than during Trump’s first term as China moves away from U.S. soybean supplies.

Even before the trade war, the Chinese were buying more from other countries such as Brazil and Argentina, and as tensions rose, Beijing specifically halted purchases of US soybeans to pressure Trump.

The move caused major financial problems for American farmers like Gaffner.

“Normally, whenever we combine soybeans, we take them directly to the river, downriver to Louisiana, and then ship them to China,” Gaffner said. “But since China doesn’t buy soybeans, we take them directly to our warehouses and store them in our warehouses.”

Gaffner remains optimistic.

Near the end of his trip, he received a call that his farm had sold a shipment of soybeans.

“We don’t like trade wars because we hope that will level the playing field,” he said. “We just want to do business.”