- Chicago soybean prices reached a 15-month high following news of a trade truce with China.
- China has agreed to purchase tens of millions of tons of U.S. soybeans over the next few years.
- The deal could help Chinese demand for U.S. soybeans return to previous levels by the 2026/27 season.
Chicago soybeans hit a 15-month high after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China had agreed to buy tens of millions of tons of American beans in the next few years as part of a trade truce.
Bessent said Thursday, Oct. 30, that Beijing had agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans for the current season and committed to buying 25 million tons annually for the next three years. That eased concerns about a lack of details in initial readouts following Thursday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“To sum up, if both sides follow through, Chinese demand (for U.S. soybeans) in 2026/27 could return to 2023/24 levels,” CM Navigator analyst Donatas Jankauskas said.
That would mark a turnaround after months in which China overlooked U.S. supplies amid its broader trade standoff with Washington, and could be a lifeline for struggling farmers in Iowa, the No. 2 grower of soybeans after Illinois.
“This is great news for Iowa farmers and our ag economy,” Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said in a statement. “Expanded soybean purchases by China will make a meaningful impact at a time when many farmers are feeling the pain of a tough farm economy.
The announcement “addresses many of the concerns around market access to China following months of stalled purchases and uncertainty,” said Tom Adam, an east-central Iowa farmer and president of the Iowa Soybean Association.
The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 1.4% at $10.09-1/2 a bushel by the end of the overnight trading session, reversing an earlier fall. It rose as high as $11.14-1/2, a level not seen since July 2024, and surpassed a previous 15-month peak this week.
Ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea, China’s state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes this week, the country’s first purchases of this year’s U.S. harvest, two trade sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Staff writer Donnelle Eller and Reuters contributed to this article.
