North American soybean producers are not willing to lose their biggest buyer market – China – so easily, and are fighting behind the scenes to get around the so-called “Trade War”. To give you an idea, after exporting US$ 21 billion of the oilseed to Asians in 2017, due to the trade dispute, sales fell by 74% in volume.
CEO of the United States Soybean Export Council (USSEC), Jim Sutter has been meeting with China's largest grain trading companies. According to information from Dow Jones Newswires, he is part of a group of leaders who are doing their best not to lose the relationship between the US agricultural sector and the Asian country.
Sutter assures Chinese buyers that U.S. soybean farmers are “eager to resume exports” once the trade dispute is over. According to Sutter, his hosts agreed that “it would be well to resume commerce.”
We need this market. You can’t create another China, at least not overnight,” said Derek Haigwood, president of the Soybean Export Council, who accompanied Sutter on a previous trip to Beijing. Next month, USSEC will receive a delegation of Chinese buyers in the US.
Joe Steinkamp, an Indiana grower and director of the American Soybean Association, delivered that message during a recent meeting with Gregg Doud, chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Steinkamp said he expressed his concern about the impact of this scenario on young farmers, who are already accumulating debt and have difficulty accessing credit: “We don’t want the next generation to be scared away from farming.”
Post: Marina Carvejani
Author: Leonardo Gottems
Source: agrolink
