‘I’m hopeful’: Farmer, rancher concerned about impacts of US-China trade war on market

By JuYeon Kim

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    IONIA, Missouri (KSHB) — The United States and China confirmed a reduction in tariffs the countries previously imposed on each other, but the agricultural community is still concerned about the immediate and long-term impacts.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, 20% of farm income comes from exports.

Heading into 2025, many farmers were just hoping to break even. The last several years have been a struggle, with the pandemic, inflation, fickle weather and high input costs.

“They’re quick to go up, but sticky coming down,” said Andrew Beeman, owner and manager of Beeman Farms.

International tariffs are especially hurting soybean farmers like Beeman. At least half of all soybean production in the U.S. is exported, and the biggest buyer is China.

China also bought nearly $25 billion worth of U.S. corn, beef, chicken and other crops last year.

“You can’t really count on them; although, they have a huge population, and if we can get into that market, it’s really good,” Beeman said.

Beeman is closely watching trade negotiations, but risk is not something he is willing to take more of. He has been proactively changing his operations to protect his businesses since the November election.

“Whenever it became apparent in the latter part of last year that the Trump administration was going to take office, I elected to sell most of my soybeans right out of the field,” Beeman said.

He is also planting more corn this year, instead of soybeans, because it is less reliant on international markets.

“Hope it would be resolved by the time we have crop to sell,” Beeman said.

Long-term, many experts are concerned the country will see losses in market share as well.

“It’s like, well, if we don’t have alternative markets for those corn, soy beans, wheat — all the stuff that we grow,” said Chris Kuehl, managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence.

For example, much of that loss is usually taken up by agricultural export powerhouses like Brazil.

“It will probably be a while before anybody can look back and say, ‘Yeah, the ultimate winner on this was country X,'” Kuehl said.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins did not rule out the possibility of government aid. President Trump allocated tens of billions during his last trade war back in 2019 and 2020.

But that would be help Beeman does not want.

“No farmers like handouts from the government,” Beeman said. “We’d much rather just make money on our own. If we wanted to play it safe, we’d get an office job.”

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