Chinese Demand for Soybeans Drops in 2025

By Mary Hightower

The world’s biggest customer for soybeans isn’t quite as hungry for them in 2025. 

China imports soybeans from the United States and Brazil as animal feed for its pork industry. In 2024, Arkansas ranked No. 10 in the U.S. for soybean production. Arkansas farmers were planning to plant 3 million acres of soybeans in 2025, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

China imported 1.38 million metric tons of soybeans from the United States in April, down 43.7 percent from April 2024. Brazil saw its exports drop to 4.6 million metric tons, 22.2 percent lower than the previous year.

However, for the first four months of the year, China imported 35.2 percent more soybeans from the U.S. than in the previous year, while Brazilian bean imports to China dropped 42.5 percent during the same period.

Part of its drop in purchasing is because China has lots of soybeans on hand. China is projected to hold about 36 percent of global soybean stocks, an estimated 43.86 million metric tons by the end of 2025. It’s well above the 16.64 million metric tons reported in 2015, slightly below the 46.01 million metric tons in 2024, and about the same as the estimated 43.3 million metric tons in 2023, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

The USDA projects that the 2024-25 marketing year will have record-high global ending stocks at 123.18 million metric tons, up nearly 8 million metric tons from last year’s record of 115.3 million metric tons.

China’s soybean production

Since 2015, China has added a little over 9 million acres of soybeans and increased production by 8.6 million metric tons or roughly 317 million bushels.

China, which many historians credit for domesticating soybeans some 5,000-6,000 years ago, continues to grow its own soybeans.