Two trade sources say China’s state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, the country’s first purchases from this year’s U.S. harvest, shortly before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
As the two nations battle over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.
Although COFCO’s deal for December-January shipment of about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans was China’s first such buy in months, traders do not expect a significant resumption in demand for U.S. cargoes after recent large South American purchases.
Benchmark Chicago soybean futures prices jumped this week to their highest in 15 months, rebounding from recent five-year lows on hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal.
