Ahead of today’s meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama, Chinese trade groups signed contracts to buy more than 484 million bushels of U.S. soybeans, a deal worth $5.3 billion, said the U.S. Soybean Export Council. The deal is equal to one-eighth of this year’s crop. The signing ceremony was held in Des Moines, Iowa. China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans while the United States and Brazil are the largest exporters. The export council says China usually buys one-fourth of U.S. soybean production.
The transaction involves 24 individual contracts and in total is the largest one-time soybean sale, said DTN.
In related news, some 42 senators wrote Obama asking “that you prioritize biotech approvals” during Xi’s visit. The countries opened a Strategic Agricultural Innovation Dialogue on Thursday, with the goal of facilitating farm trade. China approved three biotech crop varieties last winter, defusing a dispute over a Syngenta line that was approved by the United States but not by China.
“We are concerned that forward momentum has not continued,” wrote the senators, who included Agriculture Committee chairman Pat Roberts, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin, and Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic leader on the Agriculture Committee. “It is our understanding there is a growing queue of biotechnology-derived crops under review within China’s Ministry of Agriculture, creating additional regulatory uncertainty and undermining commitments made last year to bolster science-based agricultural innovation and trade.”