MINNESOTA – American producers are struggling this year as China refuses to buy soybeans from the United States in retaliation for tariffs President Donald Trump has put on the country.
Farmers say they aren’t waiting around for a bailout from the federal government.
Buyers from Vietnam and Thailand were invited to Minnesota as part of a broader and long-running effort to build more export markets for U.S. soybeans.
As potential buyers studied a handful of soybean test plots, Governor Tim Walz declared “Soybean Week” to highlight the damage tariffs have done to market access.
The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association says there are 26 thousand soybean farmers in Minnesota and more than half of the state’s soybean crop sales are from international exports.
