US soyabean futures fell on Friday on disappointment that trade talks between Washington and Beijing did not make more progress toward a deal to resolve a mounting trade dispute that has crimped crop sales to China. Prices retreated as China's Xinhua news agency said disagreements between the world's top two economies remained "relatively big" after the conclusion of US-China trade discussions.
Over the past decade, fast-rising demand from China has fueled a sharp rise in production of US soyabeans, which are set to overtake corn as the country's most widely planted crop for the first time in 35 years. Soyabeans were the most valuable US agricultural export to China last year, worth $12 billion, and US government data shows China purchases 62 percent of American soya exports.
Prices rose 1 percent on Thursday "on unfounded rumors" that China and the United States had struck a trade deal, after China last month threatened a 25 percent tariff against American soyabeans as part of a trade conflict with Washington, said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa. "It was confirmed after the close that there was no deal and as a result we are seeing the soyabean market giving back all of those gains," he said.
US soyabean sales to China over the last four weeks are down 10 percent from this time a year ago, according to US trade figures - a blow to US farm country, which helped boost US President Donald Trump into office in the 2016 election. The Chicago Board of Trade's most-active soyabean contract was down 12-1/4 cents at $10.41 a bushel at 12:30 pm CDT (1730 GMT). The most-active wheat contract was down 10-1/4 cents at $5.27-3/4 a bushel while corn slipped 3/4-cent to $4.07-1/4 a bushel.
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