The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that private exporters reported the sale of 264,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China for delivery in the 2019/2020 marketing year. The deal comes as hopes continue for a partial trade deal between the world’s two largest economies. Reuters says this is the first U.S. government confirmation of a soybean sale to China since October 11, when President Trump announced that China will buy up to $50 billion in American farm commodities thanks to a partial trade agreement.
A prior report showed U.S. soybean export sales of 475,200 tons, which included just 68,300 tons to China during the week ending on October 17. Those numbers were quite a bit lower than analysts’ projections for that week, ranging from 800,000 to 1.6 million tons. Earlier last week, Beijing had offered major Chinese and international soybean processors waivers that would exempt them from tariffs on imports of up to 10 million tons of U.S. soybeans.
USDA has confirmed sales totaling six million tons of soybeans to China since the marketing year began on September 1. That compares with just 431,000 tons over the same time in 2018, as well as 8.4 million tons during the same period in 2017, before the trade war.