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US agricultural exports are expected to plummet by $ 1.9 billion in fiscal 2019 compared to the previous year, largely due to President Donald Trump's trade war with China, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Soybean exports have been particularly hard hit, chief agency economist Robert Johansson said Thursday at the USDA's outlook forum in Washington, reported. Reuters agency. Due to the trade dispute, soybean exports to China will have "dropped by $ 22 million [metric] tons, or more than 90 percent "through this month, Johansson said.
China has fallen on the fifth largest market for US agricultural exports, said Johansson. It was the first foreign buyer in 2017. China buys only about 6% of total US exports, compared to nearly 18% in 2014.
The USDA estimates net farm income at $ 66 billion for 2018, down from $ 134 billion in 2013.
Earlier last year, Trump admitted that farmers would be victims of the trade war, but he insisted they would "understand". They are "great patriots," he added, referring to farmers. "They understand that they are doing it for the country." The Farm Bureau, which represents the country's farmers, has spoken out against tariffs and the trade war. The administration has earmarked $ 12 billion to help farmers affected by the president's trade war.
Russian farmers are one of the beneficiaries of the trade war. Their soybean exports to China more than doubled last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Overall trade between Russia and China has increased more than 27 percent to more than $ 100 billion last year, according to the newspaper. The increase in trade between the countries would have been fueled by the increasingly powerful relations between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are profiting from an America out of the trade.
The trade war has also been linked to the largest number of midwestern farm bankruptcies in the past decade, according to a review of the court's records by the Journal.
Farmers' fortunes could change if the United States and China solve their trade disputes in the ongoing talks. Even in the case of a trade agreement, recent trade relations between China and farmers in other countries could last for years. Johansson also warned that the US soybean not currently being stockpiled could take years to "unwind".
In the near future, the South American soybean crop "would make exports more competitive for the rest of the season, clouding prospects for renewed exports," warned Johansson, according to Reuters.
- This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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