Name: Chinas soybean import dependence grows amid crop shift
Uploaded: 2025-11-11T15:24:21.866Z
Duration: 3 min 2 s
Description: An expected trade deal between China and the US is offering relief to American farmers hit hard by Beijing’s block on soybean imports and China’s challenge to grow enough of its own.

An expected trade deal between China and the US is offering relief to American farmers hit hard by Beijing’s block on soybean imports and China’s challenge to grow enough of its own.

Beijing

China's demand for soybeans has surged over the past three decades, driven by a shift toward protein-rich diets and the need for livestock feed. However, domestic production covers only a small portion of the country's needs, with this year's harvest expected at around 20 million tons and imports projected to reach 100 million tons.

Despite government subsidies that favor soybean cultivation, many Chinese farmers continue to plant corn, which offers higher yields and is less labor-intensive. Trade tensions with the United States have led China to shift its soybean imports to Brazil, though this comes with risks of less reliable supply and lower quality. Soybeans remain a vital link between China and major exporters, particularly the U.S.

China's soybean import dependence grows amid crop shift

They're pressed, then crushed, before being hydraulically shaped and squeezed. This is the process of extracting oil from soybeans used in China for cooking. It's the original method, traditional technique, the old-fashioned way of pressing. Forty-seven-year-old Jiang Chengming from northern Heilongjiang province has run a business together with his wife, processing soybeans for nearly ten years. This is peak season for buying soybean oil following the summer harvest. What's left after the oil is extracted is soybean cake. The soybean cake is then cooked in a wok. We then fill it into bags and deliver it to farmers to feed their pigs and cattle. In China, a shift towards more protein-rich diets in the last three decades has sent demand for soybean soaring. It's a central feed for livestock. Only China produces just a fraction of what it needs. The country is expected to harvest around 20 million tons domestically this year and will need to import another 100 million more to meet demand. Here in Heilongjiang province, acre after acre, the fields are covered in corn. Farmers like Wang Shihuan rely on it to make ends meet. The Chinese government subsidizes agricultural produce and pays around $17 per acre of corn that's grown, far less than the nearly $300 it pays for people that cultivate soybeans. And yet people like Wang are reluctant to switch. Corn sells well. In a good year, it can produce a good yield. Soybeans, by contrast, have a low yield, so we don't grow soybeans. Economists say corn is less hassle to grow. If soybean crops aren't managed carefully, they become weed-ridden. Prior to the trade war, the bulk of soybean imports came from the U.S. But as tensions have ratcheted, Beijing has halted purchases of the crop from the number one producing market completely, instead turning to Brazil to fill the gap, despite the risk of less reliable shipments and lower-quality beans. Politically, it's a very convenient way to put direct pressure on Trump's base, the American farmer, and it's clearly something that appears to have been effective in so much as Trump is very concerned with the imports of soybeans. He's mentioned that a number of times as a priority for his meeting with Xi Jinping. The China-U.S. deal is likely to provide a lifeline to U.S. farmers and help China secure a more stable supply of this vital crop. Despite Beijing's push for self-sufficiency, soybeans look set to remain the understated staple linking two economic giants.

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