Reading Time: 4 minutes Rochester, Minnesota | Reuters — The U.S. government is paying Texas cotton farmer J. Walt Hagood US$145 an acre for losses related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies. But Minnesota soybean farmer Betsy Jensen will get just US$35 an acre. Both farmers’ sales have taken heavy blows in Trump’s trade war with China. Neither […] Read more
Trump trade-war aid sows frustration in farm country
Farmer’s threat prompts USDA to pull staff from crop tour
Reading Time: 3 minutes Henry County/Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it had pulled all staff from an annual crop tour after an employee was threatened, and three sources said the threat came over the phone from an angry farmer. Farmers have complained this month that a government crop report did not reflect damage […] Read more
Bunge CEO looks to avoid ‘stroke-of-the-pen’ risk in ongoing trade war
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A year removed from a losing bet that the U.S.-China trade war would be promptly resolved, global grains trader Bunge is facing an even more uncertain business environment, with a new CEO determined not to get burned again. Gregory Heckman, who joined Bunge’s board late last year and took on the […] Read more
Trump threatens new tariffs as U.S.-China trade tensions spike again
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday moved to impose a 10 percent tariff on a remaining $300 billion list of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1, after U.S. and Chinese negotiators failed to kickstart trade talks between the world’s two largest economies. The levies – which would hit a wide swath of […] Read more
U.S. ethanol industry nearing breaking point: Green Plains CEO
Reading Time: 3 minutes New York | Reuters – The U.S. ethanol industry is about to break under the weight of the Trump Administration’s trade war with China and the surge in the number of small refineries exempted from the nation’s biofuel laws, said Todd Becker, CEO of Green Plains. The U.S. ethanol industry was preparing for growth in […] Read more
China’s soy crushers in no rush to buy from U.S.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Beijing | Reuters – Despite the carrot of a potential exemption from import tariffs, Chinese soybean crushers are unlikely to buy in bulk from the United States any time soon as they grapple with poor margins and longer-term doubts about Sino-U.S. trade relations, people familiar with the matter said. China imposed a 25 per cent […] Read more
U.S. government to pay $15 minimum per acre to farmers hurt by China trade war
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters – The U.S. government will pay farmers hurt by President Donald Trump’s trade war with China a minimum of $15 per acre under an aid package to be unveiled before the end of this week, Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday. “We’ll have information for you before the week ends,” he told […] Read more
U.S. to favour soybeans in trade war aid for farmers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington/Chicago | Reuters — The Trump administration is considering direct payments to U.S. farmers of $2 per bushel for soybeans as part of an aid package to offset the trade war with China, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, an offer that could encourage more soy planting despite record supplies. China is the world’s top soybean importer, […] Read more
China trade
Will the friction between China and Donald Trump create real opportunities for Canadian soybean growers?
Reading Time: 7 minutes In today’s world, the news headlines that we read in the morning can be turned on their head that afternoon, which is why being able to differentiate what is really newsworthy from what’s just background noise is becoming a critical success factor for farmers. On the trade front, ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soy sinks to decade low as China trade war escalates
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures sank to their lowest prices in more than a decade on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he was in no hurry to sign a deal to end the trade war with Beijing, a dispute that has slashed U.S. exports of the oilseed to China. Wheat futures […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
