China Has Until Feb/March to Fulfill 12 MMT Soybean Obligation

Initially, China’s timeline to purchase 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans was thought to be the end of this month. Earlier in the week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted the deadline was sometime in February. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer further confused the issue while on Capitol Hill Tuesday when he was asked about the target date for those purchases. “It is for this growing season, so thank you for highlighting that,” replied Greer. “We’ve heard from a couple of farmers; they wanted to know about that discrepancy. It’s through the growing season, which is, again, when we usually expect soybeans to be sold.” The end of the soybean growing season would have ended this past fall. North Dakota Senator John Hoeven pressed Greer on the timeline again. The U.S. trade ambassador repeated the 12 million ton total would be fulfilled by the end of the growing season, “which tends to end in February or March.”