Page 18 - Export or Bust eBook

China only began accepting sorghum imports in 2013. Since then, U.S. growers, mostly in the southern
Great Plains, have had exceptional success in China. They’ve sold 39 percent to 46 percent of the entire
U.S. crop in recent years to that market – at a value of about $2.1 billion, for example, in 2015 alone.

So, it’s hardly surprising that China would aim its sky-high sorghum tariff at a farming region of
solid Trump voters. And it’s no surprise that news of the tariff has depressed sorghum cash prices even
though the announced duties aren’t yet being collected. USDA had projected the average 2017-18
crop year price at about $3 to $3.30 a bushel, and the market has already been down, “as much as
70 cents a bushel,” said Jennifer Blackburn, external affairs director for the National Sorghum
Producers (NSP). With such a threat over the sorghum market, growers don’t know if they dare plant
that crop this year.

China’s 179 percent tariff “reflects a broader trade fight in which U.S. sorghum farmers are the victim,
not the cause, and U.S. sorghum farmers should not be paying the price for this larger fight,” NSP said
in a statement.

Twenty ships full of sorghum were on their way to China when the announcement was made. U.S.
sellers, with the help of the U.S. Grains Council, were forced to find new buyers at a discount in Japan,
Mexico, Spain and elsewhere.

Thankfully, that tariff was lifted in May. Tensions
between the two countries are still high, but NSP CEO
Tim Lust told Agri-Pulse he expects Chinese
importers to begin buying U.S. sorghum again soon.

Zippy Duvall, AFBF Farmers in the line of fire
Zack Clark, NFU
It’s not a new story. American Farm Bureau
Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall told Agri-
Pulse that the Trump trade actions make him
increasingly nervous. “When (negotiators) start
talking about trade tariffs, we can look back in
history and know that agriculture is the first
segment of our economy to get hit,” and China’s
recent pushback demonstrates the point, he said.
China’s tariff announcements upset U.S. farmers, who
depend on foreign trade for 20 percent of their income.
That’s because even the threat of new trade barriers
arises depressing crop and livestock markets.

What’s more, says Zack Clark, National Farmers
Union (NFU) manager of government relations, if
China proceeds to implement its new tariffs on U.S.
grain and other commodities, “it would exacerbate
current stocks, which are already hanging over the
market, keeping prices low,” and such stocks could
continue to affect prices for another marketing
year or two.

16 www.Agri-Pulse.com