Farmers speak out on possible tariffs on soybeans

GIBSON COUNTY, Tenn. — After President Donald Trump’s announcement of proposed tariffs on steel and other imports, China says they may impose tariffs on several U.S. imports.

“When they announced that China was going to put 25 percent tariff on soybeans, we saw such a huge price decline,” said Danny Morris, a farm management specialist at the University of Tennessee Extension Service in Trenton.

Those tariffs could also have an impact on our local soybean production, Morris says.

“The largest impact it will have is on our soybean prices here in the state of Tennessee,” Morris said. “Soybean is the largest commodity that we produce.”

China imports about two-thirds of overall soy products from the United States. The increases in tariffs could have a negative impact on local farmers.

“We’ve experienced low commodity prices for the past two years, going on three, and to 2018, which means net farm income that it produces is extremely low,” Morris said. “If the farmers are in a bad financial situation right now, and if they have lower soybean prices, that bad situation is going to continue and get even worse.”

Tennessee Soybean Association Executive Director Parks Wells says farmers are just breaking even right now.

“It’s going to put a lot of people out of business, and it’s going to affect the retailers and everything else in the trade, so it can be very detrimental,” Wells said.

And if China doesn’t get soy products from the United States, Wells says they will buy from South American farmers instead.

“China has to buy soy,” Wells said. “They’ll either get it from us or South America, and there’s not enough in South America to fill their needs.”

Wells says it’s better to keep selling more instead of less, but Morris says he thinks that overall global demand shouldn’t decline.

“In my opinion, it will shift who China buys from,” Morris said. “If they don’t buy from us, they’ll be forced to buy from South America, but those customers that were existing customers of South America will likely have to shift their purchases to us. Global demand won’t decline because of this.”