Trump's Merry Christmas to US farmers

jbluhm86 · December 25, 2018

Reuters: China imports zero U.S. soybeans in November for first time since trade war started

"...China brought in 5.07 million tonnes of soybeans from Brazil in November, up more than 80 percent from 2.76 million tonnes a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Meanwhile, U.S. imports plunged from 4.7 million tonnes in November 2017 and were down from 67,000 tonnes in October.

China, the world’s top soybean buyer, usually gets most of its oilseed imports from the United States in last quarter of the year as the U.S. harvest comes to market. The U.S. was the second-largest supplier of soybeans to China and the trade was worth $12 billion in 2017.

But, purchases have plunged since Beijing placed an additional 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports on July 6, in response to tariffs enacted by the U.S. on Chinese goods. The country has stepped up its Brazilian purchases to fill the gap..."

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ABCNews 5 Cleveland: Ohio soybean farmers wait for relief as trade war with China nears half year mark

"With fields already planted, farmers hoped for a quick resolution before their crops went to market, but nearly seven months later, that hasn't happened, and the price per bushel has left many farmers under water.

"We're still in the negative, right now the stuff we're selling today we're losing money," said Chuck Sayre, a third generation family farmer from Portage County. "We're actually upside down, we've got more input costs for what we're selling today than what we're getting out of it."

"So guys are living off their equity, they're talking to their bankers," Sayre said. "That's one nice thing the farm bill has done it's improved some loan amounts for what farmers can loan but its still a loan, the farmers still have to pay it back and it's tough."

And bankers, he said, don't eye the family farm as the safe investment they once did. "Right now there are better markets in building and commercial things, where banks can make more money and maybe they don't want to talk to the farmers right now. Well, that's an issue. People still have to eat, farmers still have to have money....Our patience is starting to wear a little thin. I mean, we've been told to wait and wait, the tariff deals are coming, the China deals are coming. We feel that we voted and elected a man to put into a position that was going to help us and it's time that that happened," Sayre said. "I mean we're getting stretched to our limit."

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