Until 2024, China was the largest buyer of American soybeans. In 2025, Trump came to power and began wrangling import tariffs with the entire world. This meant that China also took quite a beating.

But China wasn't going to let this get to them. They went to Argentina and Brazil and bought up the soybean harvest there. The 2025 harvest in South America was so large that China no longer needed any soy from the US. So, it literally didn't buy any soybeans from the US.

Soybean farmers there lost their best customer, AND their second-best customer, USAid.

Trump shut that down as well. This meant that US farmers lost their two largest buyers, and despite Trump indicating a month ago that things were back to normal between China and the US, the Chinese have still bought virtually no soybeans from the US. There were two more or less symbolic purchases, partly to confirm the agreement with the US, and then it was quiet again.

China has enough soybeans from South America. It's not going back to the US. Why should it?

The only soybeans China buys in the US are those it harvests from its own farmland in the US. China owns 277,000 acres of farmland in the US.

American soybean farmers will also face hard times in 2026, and a significant portion will have to sell their farms afterward. Trump's cronies are eager to take over the farmland. They'll put it in their hedge funds and then speculate wildly.

.
--- SBBSecho 3.31-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (1:124/5016)