Washington hunts for buyers of American crops

Visiting Britain in May, Italy this week, Asia to come. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is traveling the world to woo buyers of America’s crops. Expanding and finding new markets for soybeans, corn, wheat and other American agri-food products is critical as purchases by China, the top buyer of the commodities, decline. Brooke plans to visit Japan, Vietnam and India, and her officials will also visit Peru next week.

With U.S. farmers having lost key export markets because of President Donald Trump’s trade policies that are upending global flows, U.S. farm supplies, worth $176 billion last year, remain at risk.

Finding new buyers is important given the scale of lost sales to China. The Asian country bought about half of all U.S. soybean shipments in 2024. Beijing has now turned to Brazil, Argentina and other suppliers. China currently has no orders for U.S. corn, soybeans or wheat for the coming season, U.S. government data show.

American farmers have growing cause for concern, especially as they are also losing sales to international food aid programs after Trump cuts USAID funding. American grain faces competition from other exporters such as Russia and Australia, with the only recent win Washington can offer being an expanded deal with Vietnam, which has pledged to buy $2 billion in U.S. farm products. Last month, a deal was announced with the U.K. that would open the market to U.S. ethanol and allow some beef imports. Australia’s prime minister has also teased a possible deal to import U.S. beef as part of tariff talks with Trump.

Tags: corn, soybean, wheat, USA