Global Geopolitical Series: Russia finds ‘Soybeans’ opportunity amid Sino-American trade war

The ongoing Sino-American trade war, where so far, both the parties have refused to give in, is creating an opportunity to Russia farmers looking to replace U.S. Soybeans import by China. American and China have imposed tariffs on goods imported by each other worth $360 billion. In response to United States’ tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods, China has specifically targeted U.S. farmers as China is the single biggest importer of U.S. agricultural products such as Soybeans.

According to 2017’s data, the United States is the second biggest exporter of Soybeans with 37.2 percent share of global exports, followed by Brazil. In 2017, the U.S. farmers earned $21.7 billion from Soybeans exports. On the other hand, China is the single biggest importer of Soybeans. In 2017, China imported $39.5 billion worth of Soybeans, more than the next 15 importers combined. Total import was 95 million tons, with 30 million tons coming from the U.S. alone.

Russia sees an opportunity here as the relationship with China has reached the best level ever. According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the country may partially replace the US as the leading exporter of soybeans to China. The nations are also planning to work more closely on deliveries of other agricultural goods, including pork, rice, poultry, fish, as well as developing joint logistics projects. The prime minister added that the ongoing trade friction has opened a certain part of the Chinese market to Russian farmers.

The current export level of Russia is less than a million tons but farmers see significant opportunities ahead as China wants to diversify its imports and away from the United States.