Why President Trump is Pushing China to ‘Quadruple’ its Purchase of US Soybeans

“I hope China will quickly quadruple its soybean orders,” wrote President Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform last weekend. But, will his strong public push actually work as he and his administration work to put a new trade agreement in place with China?

“I’d say a strong lean toward no,” says John Zanker, a grain market analyst and consultant with Risk Management Commodities based in West Lafayette, Indiana.

“As far as soybeans, the Chinese have zero new crop sales from us so far,” says Zanker. “This is the lowest since 2005, so we’re off to a horrible start.”

So, if China’s not buying their soybeans from the U.S., where are they getting them?

“The Chinese have bought a record amount of soybeans from Brazil in that May-June-July time frame. Arlan Suderman with StoneX says that he thinks the Chinese have built up 1.6 billion bushels worth of soybean reserves to go into the fall to put some pressure on the U.S., so I just can’t see any kind of trade agreement that’s going to throw Brazil under the bus given that they’re a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) partner.

Even through Trump is urging China to quadruple their US Soybean sales, Zanker says that the lack of Chinese buying is causing major issues for the U.S. soybean market.

“Trump’s post on Truth Social said ‘four times existing U.S. soybean sales’—but four times zero times is still zero! So, we’ve got to have some good news here and we need it fast,” says Zanker.

Earlier this week, President Trump extended the deadline to reach a new trade with China to November 10th.

As of today, China has a ten percent retaliatory tariff on U.S. soybeans.

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