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IL Soybean: No way to replace the Chinese market

The director of strategic marketing for Illinois Soybean Association says even if U.S. growers were able to capture every single Brazilian customer – that isn’t China – there’s still going to be a lot of U.S. soybeans left over, “There’s just no way to replace the Chinese market,” says Mark Albertson.

He tells Brownfield Ag News that Illinois Soybean not only hosted a Chinese delegation recently, amid the tariff trade war with China, they hosted a delegation from Argentina and Brazil, “It’s pretty cordial, to be honest. The tariff really isn’t a laughing matter (chuckle) but the Brazilians were thanking us for the tariff. They know that it’s going to result in more bushels for them.”

Albertson says they maintain a good relationship with their competitors, “Usually we’re the ones that thank the Argentinians for having bad government policies that result in them not being competitive and, in this case, the shoe’s on the other foot.”

Albertson says the tariff technically doesn’t apply to bean meal, it only applies to whole beans. So, if China were to start buying U.S. bean meal, he says, that could be a game changer.

AUDIO: Interview with Mark Albertson ~