Like most successful American exports, soybeans are produced at high efficiency by a small number of workers using cutting-edge technologies.
The United States exported $26 billion in soybeans last year, with more than half going to China.
But this year, as a result of tariffs put in place with the intent to shift trade relations with China, the largest market for one of America’s largest exports has shut its doors. The Chinese government imposed a tariff on American soybeans in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods. The latest federal data, through mid-October, shows American soybean sales to China have declined by 94% from last year’s harvest, The New York Times reports in a recent feature on the soybean industry.
Soybean farmers across the country from the Dakotas to Louisiana are now struggling to move their product.
Kevin Karel, the general manager of the Arthur Companies, which operates six grain elevators in eastern North Dakota, has started to pile a million bushels of soybeans on a clear patch of ground behind some of his grain silos. The big mound of yellowish-white beans, already one of the taller hills in this flat part of the world, will then be covered with tarps.
The hope is that prices will rise and sales will pick up before the beans rot.
“We’re sitting on the edge of our seat,” Karel said.
Read the full story and then read a recent Business Report story on how Capital Region farmers are impacted.
