URBANA, Ill. (RFD-TV News) — Pressure remains on soybean prices following President Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping late last month.
Soybeans were largely left out of the conversation, but University of Illinois economist Joe Janzen says China could return to previous buying levels. However, he says soybean purchases could still be used as leverage in trade negotiations.
“What that means for commodity prices in the here and now for this year, I think sort of the market’s best guess is that we would get to something like a normal-ish level of China soybean imports from the United States, which is that sort of 25 million metric ton-ish target. That’s in the long run, a level that they have been very comfortable with in terms of purchasing soybeans from the United States.”
Janzen says soybean markets continue to balance trade uncertainty against a supportive demand picture.
