The Washington Post says the Kremlin will offer roughly 2.5 million acres of arable land to foreign investors. Analysts are describing it as a bid to replace the U.S. as China’s most reliable soybean supplier.
China is short on filling its soybean needs after the high stakes trade war got going with the U.S. through the summer. Beijing dramatically cut purchases of U.S. soybeans in response to the tariffs imposed on Chinese products by the Trump Administration. The Post article says Chinese officials are making plans to trim around seven million soybean tons off of the nearly 33 million tons it’s been buying annually from U.S. farms.
Soybeans represent U.S. farmers’ single largest agricultural export to China, which takes approximately 60 percent of the world’s supply every year. Beijing’s cut in American purchases as sent U.S. bean future prices tumbling.