14 September 2026, Beijing, China: Chinese buyers purchased roughly 1 million metric tonnes of US soybeans this week, according to traders cited by Reuters, in one of the clearest signals yet that Beijing is following through on its pledge to resume large-scale American soybean purchases ahead of a planned meeting between President Trump and President Xi Jinping later this month.
USDA’s daily export sales data confirmed at least 612,000 tonnes sold to China between September 9 and 10 alone. Combined with earlier bookings, cumulative Chinese purchases of US soybeans for the current marketing year now stand at roughly 12.5 million metric tonnes, about half of the 25 million tonne annual commitment China agreed to under this year’s trade arrangement running through 2028.
USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg said China remains “on track to meet its agricultural commitments,” and projected that combined US agricultural sales to China, including roughly 17 billion dollars in purchases of other agricultural products beyond soybeans, would put total annual agricultural business between the two countries at around 30 billion dollars.
The purchases come as China maintains an additional 10 percent tariff on US agricultural goods, a holdover from earlier trade friction. Any move by Beijing to reduce or suspend that tariff would likely encourage private Chinese crushers, who have largely sat out this buying wave in favor of state-linked buyers, to re-enter the US market more actively.
Timing and Market Pressure Behind the Purchases
The summit between Trump and Xi is expected around September 24, though China had not formally confirmed the date at the time of the purchases. Analysts point to practical market pressure alongside the diplomatic calendar: Brazilian soybean inventories have tightened as the country approaches its own new planting season, and processing margins for Chinese crushers using Brazilian beans have narrowed, making US supply more competitive on price even before accounting for the tariff.
That timing lines up with a broader tightening in the global soybean balance sheet. USDA’s September WASDE report, released September 11, trimmed US soybean ending stocks to 310 million bushels and cut world ending stocks to 124.0 million metric tons, reinforcing the case for buyers to lock in supply while it remains available at current prices.
China’s purchases this week follow a pattern that has played out repeatedly since mid-2026, with Reuters and Bloomberg both reporting periodic waves of Chinese buying tied to diplomatic milestones rather than steady, predictable order flow. That unevenness has made it difficult for US soybean exporters and farmers to plan around Chinese demand with confidence, even as the cumulative purchase total moves closer to the annual target.
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