by Ryan Hanrahan, University of Illinois’ FarmDoc project
Urbana, IL — Reuters’ Karl Plume reported that “two cargo vessels were headed for grain port terminals near New Orleans on Monday to load with the first U.S. soybean shipments to China since May, according to a shipping schedule seen by Reuters. A third vessel was en route to a Texas Gulf Coast grain terminal to be loaded with China-bound U.S. sorghum in the coming days in what will be the first American shipment of the feed grain to China since mid-March, the shipping schedule showed.”
“U.S. farmers and grain traders have been awaiting shipments to China to resume after Beijing shunned U.S. crops for months due to a trade war with Washington, costing U.S. farmers billions on lost trade,” Plume reported. “China has booked nearly 2 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans and a smaller volume of wheat since a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October, when the White House said Beijing agreed to buy 12 million tons of soybeans by the end of the year. China has not confirmed the deal and questions about the agreement or when any sales would ship have fueled uncertainty in grain markets.”
“The vessel Ocean Harvest is due to arrive at Cargill’s Reserve, Louisiana, terminal and the vessel Tokugawa is scheduled to arrive at a Convent, Louisiana, terminal owned by Zen-Noh Grain this week, both to be loaded with U.S. soybeans, the shipping schedule showed,” Plume reported. “A third vessel, Bungo Queen, is due to arrive for loading with U.S. sorghum at the Archer-Daniels-Midland terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the next week.”
Ag Secretary Says China Trade Deal Expected to be Signed Within Weeks
Progressive Farmer’s Chris Clayton reported that Agriculture Secretary Brooke “Rollins said China has purchased nearly 1.5 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S., though the early trade announcements were closer to 332,000 metric tons. ‘They’ve already put in a purchase order. We’ve already started shipping soybeans their way.'”
“Administration officials have said repeatedly since Trump returned from South Korea at the beginning of November that China agreed to buy 12 mmt of soybeans this year and 25 mmt a year over the next three years,” Clayton reported. “‘We have every indication they will continue to buy soybeans, sorghum, etc.,’ Rollins said, but added the new trade agreements would expand soybean sales to trading partners such as Japan and the EU. ‘We can’t just be so reliant as Americans producing American products on one country — a foreign adversary,’ she said, referring to China.”
Clayton reported that “Rollins added, ‘I know they are inking the deal this week or next week. Again, every sign is their commitment remains true that they will indeed buy or purchase 12 mmt or put the order in. It doesn’t mean (we) will move 12 mmt by the end of December, but it does mean that those purchase orders will come.'”
Trump Says He Spoke to China’s President Xi About Soybeans
Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove reported that “US President Donald Trump held back-to-back calls with the leaders of China and Japan, as escalating tensions over Taiwan threaten to derail his weeks-old trade truce with Beijing.”
“‘I just had a very good telephone call with President Xi,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social, without making mention of Taiwan. The two leaders discussed Ukraine and elements of the pact struck in South Korea, he added: ‘Now we can set our sights on the big picture,'” Wingrove reported. “…Trump’s flurry of diplomacy comes as the US and China’s trade teams hash out the final details of their truce. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that a rare earths deal between the nations would ‘hopefully’ be completed by Thanksgiving, though talks on key implementation details continue.”
“Trump said he spoke with Xi about purchases of soybeans and other farm products, as well as curbing shipments of illegal fentanyl — key components of their broad trade truce,” Wingrove reported.
