Trumped Farmers Lose Millions on Soybeans They Can’t Sell to China

The dictator’s economically irrational tariffs on South Dakota’s top trading partners have the rural ag-industrialists who elected him anxious:

About 60% of soybeans grown in South Dakota are exported, with China formerly buying about 30%, [SD Soybean Assoc. exec Jerry] Schmitz said. China imports soybeans largely for livestock feed to meet the growing demand for meat among its 1.4 billion people.

Now the country is boycotting purchases of U.S. soybeans in retaliation for tariffs on Chinese goods imposed recently by Republican President Donald Trump.

“There is not a bushel sold to China right now, and we’re about to harvest,” Schmitz said.

…The Chinese boycott has reduced demand for U.S. soybeans, which has influenced prices. Soybeans sold for about $10.50 per bushel one year ago in South Dakota, but are now $1 to $1.50 lower, and there are fears of further declines without a China trade deal.

…Noting that South Dakota farmers raise nearly 250 million bushels of soybeans annually, [Congressman Dusty Johnson] said a price drop of $2 per bushel translates to a loss of $500 million [Seth Tupper, “Trump–China Trade Dispute Heightens Harvest Anxiety for South Dakota Soybean Farmers,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.09.07].

The South Dakota Soybean Producers opened a new processing plant near Mitchell yesterday to turn beans into cattle feed and oil, but it will take up less than half the slack Trump’s China tariffs have created in the market:

The High Plains Processing Plant is designed to crush about 35 million bushels of soybeans per year. South Dakota farmers produced about 238 million bushels last year.

…Still, farm advocates cautioned that one facility cannot fully offset the loss of the world’s largest soybean buyer.

“No, it’s not going to be enough,” said Doug Sombke, president of South Dakota Farmers Union.

Sombke and a delegation of about 40 farmers were in Washington, D.C., earlier this week to express their concerns to Congress.

“It helps, yeah, but it’s going to take a lot more,” Sombke said. “Farmers are in a lot of trouble. We’re going to lose farmers if we don’t do something quick” [Joshua Haiar, “$500 Million Soybean Processing Plant Opens in Mitchell,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.09.09].

Congressman Johnson agrees that Trump’s tantrum tariffs are an unsustainable ploy and that South Dakota’s farmers need us to return to the status-quo-ante-King-Don regime of global free trade:

“Although we want to diversify away from China, you simply can’t ignore China,” Johnson said.

The congressman said many of the farmers he meets are “still backing the president’s play” to use tariffs in negotiations that could benefit agriculture in the future, but he said high tariffs “cannot be business as usual on a go-forward basis.”

“The president’s trying to use them as a tool to get better deals,” Johnson said. “I understand that approach, but we do not want to just end with high tariffs” [Tupper, 2025.09.07].

So, farmers, how many of you have to go bankrupt before you realize how little Maralago Mussolini cares about your survival?