China signs US agriculture purchase agreements in first ceremony in years

A delegation of commodity importers from China on Monday signed agreements to buy billions of dollars’ worth of agricultural goods, mostly soybeans, during a ceremony in Iowa, the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) said on Tuesday.

The agreements, signed at the China-U.S. Sustainable Agricultural Trade Forum, were the first such bulk signings since 2017 between top soybean importer Beijing and the U.S., the world’s second-largest supplier of the oilseed.

The deals also included corn, sorghum and wheat, the U.S. Soybean Export Council said.

China’s crop import purchases from the U.S. are well below normal this year as Brazil, the world’ largest exporter of corn and soy, harvested bumper crops.