Officials signed 11 agreements at the China-US Sustainable Agricultural Trade Forum
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Officials from the U.S. and China met in Des Moines, Iowa on Oct. 24 to sign multiple ag export agreements.
In total, Chinese and American representatives put pen to paper on 11 purchasing contracts during the China-U.S. Sustainable Agricultural Trade Forum.
Traders involved in the signings included Bunge, Cargill and ADM, with companies like Sinograin and COFCO representing Chinese buyers.
The contracts reaffirmed China’s commitment as a top U.S. ag importer and signals opportunities both countries, said Ambassador Xie Feng.
“China is the world’s largest importer of U.S. agriculture exports,” he said in a U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) statement. “The contracts signed today are multiple billions (of dollars) in value. Let us sow more seeds of cooperation on the fields of hope.”
China is America’s number one customer when it comes to soybeans.
The United States exported $34.37 billion of soybeans in 2022, with China purchasing just over half of that amount.
That year, Chinese buyers purchased $17.93 billion worth of soybeans, paying an average of $16 per bushel.
For context, Mexico is the second largest U.S. soybean buyer. That country imported $3.64 billion of soybeans in 2022, USDA data shows.
The signed contracts, however, may not translate into immediate results.
The deals were signed as frame contracts.
These are “typically non-binding letters of intent to buy at a later date, without formal sales terms,” Reuters reported.
But the contracts can help provide farmers with confidence that markets will exist for their products, said Jason Hafemeister, acting deputy under secretary of trade and foreign agricultural affairs.
“These contracts illustrate the gains from trade: food is moving from surplus regions to deficit; the confidence behind these contracts allows U.S. producers to invest where we have agriculture advantages; and this relationship will help foster innovation needed to sustainably intensify production to deliver nutrition and food security sustainably,” he said in the USSEC’s statement.