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China tariffs a threat to Missouri soybean growers’ bottom line

Missouri Soybean Association President Brooks Hurst says the Chinese plan to roughly triple tariffs on U.S. soybeans is a threat to Missouri soybean farmers’ bottom line.  The day of the announcement saw a 40 cent-a-bushel drop in soybean futures. For Missouri farmers, Hurst says that works out to a loss of roughly $20 per acre.

“That’s real money for farmers,” Hurst told Brownfield Ag News Thursday, “and it hurt.”

Every third row of U.S. soybeans goes to China.  Chinese buyers get 60 percent of total U.S. exports. In 2017, that was about $14 billion worth of U.S. soybeans.

“We’d like to ask to sit down with the administration and find a way to reduce our trade deficit maybe by increasing competitiveness as opposed to erecting barriers to foreign markets,” said Hurst.  “We’ve worked really, really hard to open up foreign markets and we’d hate to have them go away with the stroke of a pen.”

Hurst farms in northwestern Missouri.  There’s a 30-day comment period for President Trump’s corresponding proposal to increase tariffs on imports from China.