By Karl Plume
CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture left its U.S. soybean export forecast unchanged in a monthly report on Tuesday as sales to China have resumed after the top importer had shunned purchases for months amid a bruising trade war with Washington.
The USDA pegged soybean exports in the 2025/26 season that ends on August 31 at 1.635 billion bushels. Ending stocks were also unchanged from a month earlier at 290 million bushels.
The world’s top soy importer resumed buying U.S. soy after a meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in late October, where the White House said China agreed to buy 12 million metric tons from the current crop. Some of the nearly 2.9 million metric tons in confirmed sales to date have already started to ship.
The purchases, however, were well below levels that China has imported from the U.S. in recent years. That loss of demand has pressured soybean prices and cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.
The White House on Monday unveiled a $12 billion aid package for American farmers hurt by the financial fallout from its trade policies.
Corn exports have been robust, and the USDA on Tuesday raised its U.S. corn export forecast as sales of the grain to global buyers have been stronger than anticipated.
U.S. corn exports were seen at a record 3.200 billion bushels, up from 3.075 billion a month earlier, while end-of-season supplies were estimated at 2.029 billion bushels, down from the USDA’s prior-month forecast of 2.154 billion.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago. Editing by Mark Potter)
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