US-China trade war has hurt American soybean sales

American soybean farmers head into the harvest without
sales to China. (Photo by Daniela Paola Alchapar, Unsplash)

One quarter to a third of American soybean exports were purchased by China before the US-China trade wars began in 2018, Keith Bradsher from The New York Times reported.

Now American soybean exports to China have fallen to zero. China has boycotted buying the crop in retaliation of tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on Chinese imports. China now buys soybeans from Brazil.

“The pain is being felt in Midwest states, especially Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana. For the first time in many years, American farmers are preparing to harvest their crop this fall with no purchase orders from China,” Bradsher wrote.

Farmers in rural China are also facing the impact of the trade war.

Because of rising demand, soybeans can fetch higher prices, and thus some farmers in Heilongjiang Province (where the greatest output of soybeans in China comes from) are turning a profit.

However, the crop yield from Chinese soybean farmers in Heilongjiang Province is not enough to supply all of China, and many farmers in the area do not want to grow soybeans because it requires more effort and overall is less profitable than corn. At the same time, rural areas face labor shortages as the youth move to the cities for higher paying jobs.