As of May, China has stopped buying US soybeans resulting in zero new orders for the current harvest season. 

Senator Chuck Grassley recently spoke of the issue, “We’re beginning to hear of distress in our farming community. And I’m pleading here in Washington (D.C.) to be on top of it, so we don’t make the same mistakes we did in the agricultural depression of the 1980s. I’m also pushing to get some trade agreements done. Particularly with China because they haven’t bought a single soybean. And about 50% of our soybeans are exported, and half of those go to China. China hasn’t bought a single one yet. So farmers are in need of assistance. More importantly, they need new markets, and not having soybeans going into China this year, China getting soybeans from Brazil and Argentina, is a gut punch for most soybean farmers.”  

Iowa is ranked first in the nation for soybean production, and more than 85% of Iowa’s land is farmed.  According to the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA), total U.S. soybean exports for 2023 were $28 billion. Of that, Iowa soybean exports totaled $3.9 billion.

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