China just placed its largest order of U.S. soybeans in two years, offering a sign of improving trade conditions after months of China snubbing American soybean farmers.
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the sale of 792,000 metric tons of soybeans to China. The move follows a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of last month to ease trade tensions, with China committing to resume orders of U.S. soybeans and purchase 12 million tons of of the crop by the end of the year, as well as at least 25 million tons in each of the next three years.
Earlier this month, China bought 332,000 tons of U.S. soybeans, bringing the total so far in November to more than 1 million tons. COFCO, China’s largest state-owned agriculture and food business, had not ordered soybeans from the U.S. since May and had not purchased the crop since the 2025 U.S. harvest season began.
These fresh purchases offer hope for U.S. farmers following months of tariff disputes that disincentivized China from purchasing American soybeans and effectively priced them out of the global market. It’s a good start, industry leaders said, but farmers want more assurance of a steady market moving forward.
