agriculture News Updates

Farming communities have seen export markets for many crops dissipate and federal safety net programs shrink during the president’s second term.

Soybean futures erased earlier gains after President Donald Trump said a planned meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, may not happen. 

Cargill's profit surged 86% in its Q1 as the largest private company in the U.S. benefited from President Donald Trump’s tax bill and better performance in all its business segments.

The soft drink maker is limited by the U.S. supply of cane sugar and its ability to ramp up production in glass bottles, CFO John Murphy said.

Amid a wide-ranging agenda of complex geopolitical and trade issues, Washington continues to press Beijing, the world’s largest agricultural importer, to increase purchases of soybeans. 

U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.

China, typically the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans, still hasn’t booked a single shipment of the crop from this year’s harvest.

Tyson Foods, JBS and Cargill have leaned on poultry profits to cushion losses at their beef businesses, which have been impacted by the worst U.S. cattle shortage in decades.

But farmers are worried that time is quickly running out to reach a trade deal with China in time to sell any of this year’s crop to their biggest customer.

Trump said Oct. 1 he plans to raise the issue when he meets Xi in South Korea at the end of October. But the clock is already ticking for U.S. soybean growers, with the harvest already under way.