Soybean farmers caught in looming crisis as US trade war with China cripples sales

Kennard, Nebraska, feels a long way from Beijing or even Washington, D.C.

But as the United States and China remain locked in a trade war, the Cornhusker State and its farmers like Scott Thomsen are caught in the middle of the conflict.

Thomsen, a fourth-generation farmer who farms corn, cattle and soybeans, was preparing to harvest soybeans planted last winter – at a moment when China has stopped purchasing American soybeans in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

“China has not bought a single export cargo of beans so far this year, which is not very typical,” Thomsen told ABC News on his family’s farm in Kennard, in eastern Nebraska.

“When China quits buying, our prices go down,” he said.

A looming crisis

China is the world’s largest soybean buyer, importing more soybeans over the last five years than every other country combined, according to the American Soybean Association.

In the seven years leading up to the 2018 trade war during the first Trump administration, roughly 60% of all U.S. soybean exports went to China.

Today, Beijing is turning to South America, and particularly to Brazil, for soybeans amid trade negotiations with the United States.

For American farmers who export their harvests directly to Asia, the evaporation of Chinese demand for soybeans — at a time when fertilizer and other inputs have become more expensive — could potentially be devastating, and lead to bankruptcies and foreclosures.

“It’s just a massive shock to our markets,” Cory Walters, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska, told ABC News.

In conversations across eastern Nebraska and in Washington, D.C., where some farmers lobbied lawmakers and the Trump administration for financial assistance ahead of the harvest, more than a dozen farmers told ABC News they felt like bargaining chips between the U.S. and China.

They said they were worried about how the potential crisis could reverberate across rural America.

“We’re in the middle of the worst economic downturn that I’ve seen in my 50 years,” John Hansen, the president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said at a regional meeting in Beatrice, Nebraska, last week.

“Agriculture is our foundation here in Nebraska and many states in the Midwest,” Don Schuller, a corn and soybean farmer, told ABC News. “If agriculture is failing here everything is going to fail.”

In some areas, farmers who can’t sell their crops to crushing plants producing oil used for cooking and biofuels say they are worried that grain elevators and storage facilities will stop purchasing soybeans.

A lack of space and concerns about being able to resell the crop– and that soybean farmers from other states that are unable to sell to China will flood their local markets — will further depress prices, the farmers say.

Trump offers help, but no concrete solutions so far

In conversations with ABC News, some farmers who said they supported President Donald Trump felt frustrated by the soybean crisis, in part because Trump had promises to support farmers.

“I won 80%, 85% of the farmers. And I love them,” Trump said in June. “I’m never going to do anything to hurt our farmers.”

During the first Trump administration, when China first tightened soybean purchases from the U.S. for trade leverage, the White House delivered tens of billions in payouts to farmers to help them bridge the gap in demand.

In August, Trump urged China to start buying soybeans again, posting on social media, “I hope China will quickly quadruple it’s soybean orders.”

On Thursday, he told reporters at the White House he hoped to take some of the money raised by tariffs and “give it to our farmers,” even though the Department of Agriculture has not yet unveiled a plan.

Representatives from the USDA told ABC News that discussions are still ongoing.

“Soybean, corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton farmers are facing very difficult times,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “We are currently in conversations here at the White House, across the government, on a farmer aid package.”

Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson He Yadong said in a statement, “Regarding the trade of soybeans, the United States should take positive action to cancel the relevant unreasonable tariffs to create conditions for expanding bilateral trade.”

Thomsen, who said he voted for Trump, said he still supports the administration’s position amid negotiations with China.

“I voted for him because I’d like to see manufacturing come back to this country. I’d to see good paying jobs. I want to see everybody do better. And I think this is some short-term pain for a long-term gain,” he said.

Farmers are more resilient than most people, Thomsen added, used to weathering the boom-and-bust cycles of years past.

“This is not an easy life. Why do you guys choose this? Why does this matter?” ABC News’ Matt Rivers asked Thomsen.

“I would say there’s a few days in the middle of winter and middle of summer that everybody asks themselves that question,” Thomsen replied.

“But you stick with it,” Rivers said.

“It’s a passion. It’s a tradition. It’ a hobby,” Thomsen said.

“There’s farmers in our area that have full-time jobs and they’ll do it after working on the weekends. That’s what they grew up doing and people have a lot of passion for it,” he added.