US farmers caught in Trump-China trade war – who’ll buy the soybeans? | Trump tariffs

Soybean harvest at the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota has just wrapped up for the season. Silver grain silos are filled with about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, worth about $10 a pop.

But this year, the fate of soybeans and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them is uncertain: America’s soybean farmers are caught in the middle of a trade war between the United States and China, the largest buyer of soybean exports used to feed China’s pigs.

“We’re going to have to find a home for soybeans soon,” said Matt Purfeerst, a fifth-generation farmer on the family’s land. “They won’t stay in our trash cans forever.”

No other country has come close to purchasing American soybeans as much as China; Last year, this amount was worth more than $12 billion. This year, the country hasn’t purchased a single dollar’s worth, cutting off the country’s nearly half of U.S. soybean exports.

While Trump has said he plans to make some sort of payment to soybean farmers hurt by the tariffs, a specific plan announcement is awaited. pending while the government is shut down. In a post on Truth Social last week, he said he would meet with the Chinese president soon and that “soybeans will be a major topic of discussion.”

In its response to the Guardian on Wednesday, the White House blamed Democrats for the government shutdown for the delay and falsely claimed they were prioritizing health care for immigrants over farmers.

“President Trump [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent and [Agriculture] Secretary [Brooke] Rollins is always in touch with the needs of our farmers, who played a crucial role in the president’s November victory,” said spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress have stalled progress on this issue with their prolonged shutdowns to serve illegal immigrants instead of America’s farmers. “No decisions have been made, but we look forward to sharing good news soon.”

Purfeerst’s family farm grows soybeans and corn and raises some cattle. It is a 24-hour combination of business, engineering, business, manual labor and environmental science. And it’s becoming increasingly difficult for family farms to achieve this. He said the costs of propane, fertilizer and seed have increased, and the prices of the goods they sell do not cover the increased costs.

He said soybean farmers have become “the poster child for how this particular segment is hurting right now.” The farm recently welcomed Democratic U.S. senator Amy Klobuchar for a visit to talk about how the tariffs are implemented, but Purfeerst said political connections don’t matter.

“Only 1% of the population participates in these activities [agriculture] “And what’s really challenging is the perception of agriculture here, whether it’s tariffs and prices or environmental issues, farmers seem to be sort of the focus of a lot of that.”

Farmlands, like much of rural America, voted for Trump in 2024. An analysis by Investigate MidwestIt showed Trump increasing his support among agriculture-dependent counties in 2024 despite a trade war that negatively affected farmers during his first term.

“I’m not going to get into who I voted for specifically, but I will say you just have to decide who you think would be the best leader of the country at that time and move on with your life,” Purfeerst said. “And in four years you’ll be able to vote again. That’s the beauty of our society. It’s not an 80-year regime. It’s a four-year cycle. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen. So everyone has their pros and cons.”

Purfeerst has options for soybeans: because of his farm’s location, he can sell domestically to soybean crushing plants in nearby towns, sell on the railroad market or sell in Minneapolis and put the product on barges down the Mississippi River. Other soybean farmers are not so lucky, especially those in more remote parts of the midwest where soybeans are mostly produced.

Stories have surfaced in recent weeks from all over the country where soybeans are grown—Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, and the Dakotas. Farmers face higher costs for inputs such as fertilizer and equipment. They rely on China as a buyer. Soybeans that sit in warehouses for too long are exposed to weather conditions and pests. Prices fluctuate, so holding it is a gamble that can sometimes pay off and sometimes lose money.

“Let’s say we make a trade deal with China tomorrow and it will be in favor of soybeans. All of a sudden you can see this market jump from $10 to $12 in three or four days,” Purfeerst said. “So that makes it extremely difficult from a risk management standpoint: When do you market your crop and how many eggs do you put in that basket? Potential is $12, but it could go to $9 if we don’t get a trade deal… There’s huge volatility in soybeans.”

The soybean industry has been warning for months that a Chinese withdrawal from the market would be devastating and has been calling on the Trump administration to strike a trade deal that protects farmers. American Soybean Association wrote a letter He told Trump in August that the nation’s soybean farmers were “on a trade and financial precipice” and “will not survive a protracted trade dispute with our largest customer.”

Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz declared the first week of October as soybean week, saying in the announcement that “our soybean farmers are facing a crisis they haven’t seen since the 1980s.”

“They produced a bumper crop this year after learning they had nowhere to sell their harvest thanks to Trump’s trade policies,” Walz said. “Minnesota has the best beans in the world; I encourage Minnesotans to stand with our farmers and continue to advocate for federal trade reform.”

This isn’t the first time Trump’s trade plan has hurt soybean farmers: In 2018, a trade war led to significant declines in soybean exports to China. The market has since recovered, but China accelerated Soybean purchases from Brazil and Argentina created import stock at the beginning of this year.

Republican lawmakers have said they sympathize with farmers and want to find a way to help them. Republican congressman James Comer of Kentucky said this week that he is not responsible for the problem soybean farmers are facing.

“They planted that crop assuming the foreign markets would be there,” Comer said. He said on a TV show recently. “I think we need to do something to help soybean farmers.”

Purfeerst said the bailout was “really just a Band-Aid” but that many farmers who are struggling right now would welcome it. Most farmers prefer an open market for their products, where there are no tariffs, allowing prices to be determined by the market. They don’t want the trade war to affect long-term relationships, which now account for a significant portion of market share. He also said more attention should be paid to increasing domestic use of soybeans, but a long-term plan like this would not help farmers who are struggling right now.

“There are farms that are struggling to make money from their soybean fields, and you have to remember: No matter what the payment we get, no matter the dollar amount, if we get something, it’s not just going to go in our back pocket,” he said. “We have a fertilizer bill. We have to pay the seed bill. There are a lot of payments. So actually this money can stay in the farmer’s hands for a month until it is spent on next year’s inputs.”