China buys 8 to 10 cargoes of US soybeans after Trump-Xi summit

Trade ties between the United States and China appear to be improving somewhat. After the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, China has bought soybeans from the United States. According to sources, China has bought 8 to 10 cargoes of soybeans in the first deals. The deals are expected to give fresh momentum to farm trade between the two countries.

The deals were made by China's state-owned trading companies. Each Panamax cargo bought carries about 65,000 metric tonnes of soybeans. At that rate, 8 to 10 cargoes could mean roughly 520,000 to 650,000 metric tonnes of soybeans being shipped to China. Shipments are likely to begin in December. The purchase is being seen as significant, coming after a gap of a few weeks in Chinese buying of US soybeans.

After the Trump-Xi summit in September, the two countries released a list of possible tariff cuts. Soybeans were not on that list. This weakened hopes that China's private soybean processing companies would begin large-scale purchases from the United States. As the current deals were made by state-owned companies, they are being watched closely from the standpoint of trade relations between the two countries.

According to information released by the White House, China has set a target of buying 25 million metric tonnes of US soybeans in the 2026-27 marketing year. Before the latest deals, China had already bought about 13.7 million tonnes of soybeans. That means more than half of the set target has already been bought.

Even so, it would not be right to say that China's demand for soybeans has fully recovered. China's soybean imports in September were 11.88 million tonnes, down 7.7 per cent from a year earlier. Global farm markets will therefore watch how much more China buys from the United States.