Is China's Current Buying Spree Sustainable?
By Tyne Morgan
Ag Web
While China could be on course to buy a near record amount of U.S. ag goods, it wasn’t that long ago when China’s total ag buys from there U.S. topped 100 million tonnes.
“We have to remember the trajectory of Chinese soybean imports prior to two major events that happen simultaneously,” says Brian Splitt of AgMarket.Net. “That was the beginning of the trade war, and the onset of the African swine fever.”
Splitt says those two events meant China bought around 85 million tonnes of U.S. ag goods, a significant drop from where they were the years prior. Now China is rebuilding its economy and rejuvenating its domestic hog herd, which is creating a positive demand story for the U.S.