After Record Corn Sale To China, Perdue Expects 'A Big Shipping Season This Fall'
By Chuck Abbott, Successful Farming
China is far short of meeting its “phase one” commitment to buy huge amounts of U.S. food and ag exports, but Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said, “We expect a big shipping season this fall” — China’s preferred shopping period for American grain. On Thursday, Chinese companies made one of the largest corn purchases in half a century of USDA records.
Grain sales to China have picked up in recent weeks, providing moments of continuity amid rising tensions between the world’s two largest economic powers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the Chinese Communist Party as “the central threat of our times” during a Senate hearing on Thursday. The nations recently ordered each other to close a consulate, and although the “phase one” agreement de-escalated the dispute, the Sino-U.S. trade war remains unresolved.