U.S. Growers Need More Certainty When It Comes To Trade

U.S. agriculture is ready for some stability in ag trade policies and opportunities.  Dr. Mark Welch, a grain marketing analyst from Texas A & M University, said it’s past time for more certainty in overseas trade policy.

“Reestablishing some of our basic trading agreements and arrangements and partnerships, that, to see China's a huge buyer of our soybeans, and has been for a long, long time," he said.  "We typically export half of our soybeans, and half of those go to China. And so, then, to have the prospects of something again approaching something normal over the last several years, an opportunity maybe coming back into the market, for now, for the ‘25-‘26 crop that we're marketing.”

If Trade Deals Are Going To Get Done, Now Is The Time

Stability is even more important when U.S. growers have a lot of commodities to market and face stiff competition overseas.

“We’ve got a lot of South American beans that are just fixing to hit the market," Welch said.  'So, if we're going to make, you know, hay while the sun shines, we can lock in some sales right now. That can be very, very important in that there's fixing to be a big, whole big slug of soybeans available in the Southern Hemisphere. This is the time to get it done.”

Will Congress Help Farmers?

He said there are at least some reasons for more optimism.

“So, it's certainly nice to see some optimism there on perhaps some soybean export sales to China, perhaps more normalized trading relations with India, with soybean oil exports, some of the soybean co-products or byproducts, including the oil and the meal. What might trade possibilities for those products be? And then, of course, if there's some legislation that perhaps is moving through that will be more friendly for renewable fuels,” Welch said.

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