Soybeans are going bananas – Business Insider

Farmer
John Duffy and Roger Murphy load soybeans from a grain bin onto a
truck
Scott Olson/Getty
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• 
  Soybean prices rose 3% on Tuesday.
• They are up more than 11% after falling nearly 20%
  since April amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
• Trump recently rolled out a $12 billion aid package for
  farmers.
• 
  
  Watch soybeans trade in real time here.
  

Soybean
prices jumped Tuesday as the prospect of easing trade tensions
between the US and China set the legume up for its longest streak
of gains in nearly a year.

In a sixth straight session of gains and at the highest level in
more than a month, soybean futures for November delivery rose by
as much as 3% to $9.16 a barrel in midday trading. The legume has
climbed more than 11% while gaining ground in 11 of the last 12
sessions. The rally follows a months-long decline that in July
had dragged prices to near-decade lows.

Representatives of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chinese
Vice Premier Liu He are looking to restart trade talks after a
months-long standoff, two people familiar with the matter

told Bloomberg, in efforts to avoid further escalation in a
trade war between the world’s largest economies.

Soybean prices had shed nearly 20% since April when the Trump
administration announced plans to penalize China for alleged
intellectual-property theft and what the president sees as unfair
trade practices.

The Trump administration enacted earlier this month a 25% tariff
on roughly
$34 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened to slap
additional duties on nearly all Chinese imports to the US,
prompting Beijing to retaliate in kind.

Among the targeted $34 billion worth of US products include
soybeans, which China has since been strategizing to reduce
domestic reliance on by lowering trade barriers with other
exporters of the legume.

Following backlash among American farmers — who make up a key
part of Trump’s political base — the administration last week
rolled out
$12 billion in emergency aid to farmers hurt by its trade
policies. The
controversial plan would include direct payments to farmers,
trade promotion abroad, and government buyouts of surplus
agricultural goods. 

Last week, Trump struck
a deal with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
for the EU to purchase more American soybeans. But the EU
consumes significantly less soybeans than China, which is the
world’s largest importer of the legume.

Soybean prices are down 12% year-over-year.

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