US farmers seek firmer soybean guarantees despite Xi-Trump agriculture pledge

Advertisement2026 Xi-Trump summitUSUS farmers seek firmer soybean guarantees despite Xi-Trump agriculture pledge

American growers welcome China’s renewed buying commitments, but vague terms and tariff concerns cloud optimism

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Lucy Quagginin New YorkPublished: 1:00am, 29 May 2026Updated: 1:31am, 29 May 2026

Across the vast United States, soybean farmers caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war hoped for a deal on the crop when US President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

There was optimism after the two presidents met in Busan, South Korea, in October, when China committed to increased soybean purchases. This time, however, Trump left Beijing without any concrete agricultural announcements, much less one about US farmers’ biggest export.

Instead, a general commitment about US agricultural products surfaced two days later in a brief White House readout, leaving some US farmers wary over the lack of detail despite welcoming the renewed pledge.

AdvertisementChina has now agreed to purchase at least $17 billion per year of US agricultural products from 2026 through 2028, in addition to the soybean purchase commitments that it made in October 2025, the White House statement read.

“We want to make sure that there is a commitment that’s got some teeth in it,” said Darin Johnson, a fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer from Minnesota, after the readout came out. “We would prefer to have some sort of signed agreement to make sure they are fully committed to it.”

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The soybean commitments were agreed upon during Trump and Xi's meeting in South Korea, where Beijing pledged to buy 12 million metric tonnes in the remainder of 2025 and at least 25 million tonnes of US soybeans yearly from 2026 to 2028. Based on the US Department of Agriculture's latest projected season-average price, those purchases would be worth around US$10.5 billion.

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