China, Amid Trade War, Says it Doesn’t Need US Grains and Oilseeds

By Ryan Hanrahan

Bloomberg’s Hallie Gu reported that “China’s grain supply won’t be affected by a loss of US feed grain and oilseed imports, thanks to abundantly available substitutes on the global market and sufficient reserves at home, a top official from the country’s state planner told reporters on Monday.”

“The world’s top buyer of soybeans is set to receive a mammoth amount of the oilseed from South America in the second quarter, easing a supply shortage and helping to further cool animal feed prices,” Gu reported. “Inbound shipments, mainly from Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, are poised to climb to more than 30 million tons during the period from April to the end of June, Yin Ruifeng, who is affiliated with China’s agriculture ministry, wrote separately in an article. That would be a record for the quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations.”

“China has moved to diversify its sources of grains in recent years, and has shifted to buying more Brazilian soybeans as the trade war sparked by President Donald Trump’s tariffs makes purchases of US crops unviable,” Gu reported. “American grains like soybeans, corn and sorghum ‘can be easily substituted and the supplies on the international market are quite sufficient,’ said Zhao Chenxin, depute director of the National Development and Reform Commission. ‘Even without purchases of US feed grains and oilseed, there won’t be much impact on China’s grain supply.'”

China Corn and Soybean Orders Slow in 2025

World-Grain’s Arvin Donley reported that “China has not placed an order for US corn and soybeans since Jan. 16, four days before the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Nikkei Asia reported, citing data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).”

“Trump, who during his first term as president sparked a trade war with China in 2018, has made good on his campaign promise to increase tariffs during his second term not only on Chinese imports but on products from many other countries as well,” Donley reported. “…The trade wars have cost the United States its position as China’s No. 1 soybean supplier. Brazil has taken that spot, and Nikkei reported that Chinese negotiators traveled to Brazil last week to hold bilateral discussions to further expand imports of Brazilian soybeans.”

“Although no longer China’s biggest soybean supplier, the United States still sends about half of its soybean exports to the world’s second most populous country,” Donley reported. “In 2024, China imported more than 27 million tonnes of soybeans from the United States, worth $12.8 billion, according to the USDA.”

However, the Wall Street Journal’s Kirk Maltais reported that Jason Britt, President of Kansas City, Mo., agricultural brokerage Central States Commodities “cautions that there is a number of more-normal factors that could contribute to China’s noticeable absence from buying U.S. soybeans. China often slows down soybean purchases in the spring, as U.S. farmers are in the early stages of planting their next crops, for which exporters are more keen to begin making deals.”

China Canceled US Pork Shipment

The Hill’s Filip Timotija reported that “China canceled 12,000 metric tons of United States pork shipments amid a high-stakes trade standoff between the superpowers, according to data released Thursday.”

“The move represents the biggest cancellation of pork orders since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and stalled economies around the world, Bloomberg News reported,” according to Timotija’s reporting. “China, behind Mexico and Japan, was the U.S.’s third-biggest market for pork in 2024, importing some 475,000 metric tons valued at more than $1.1 billion.”

“China is the world’s biggest producer of pork, accounting for nearly 50 percent of global supply at around 57 million metric tons, according to the USDA,” Timotija reported. “The U.S. was ranked third at 11 percent with 12 million metric tons.”