US-China trade war boosts demand for Russian soybeans

The volume of Russian soybeans exported to China will be worth at least $600 million by 2024, according to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.

Soybeans and their processed derivatives were the second-biggest agricultural export from Russia's Far East, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Levitin said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.

“Over the past year, these exports doubled and amounted to 6.5 percent of the total export volumes from the Far East. This became possible due to a significant increase in demand from the Chinese market due to its trade conflict with the US,” he said.

Levitin also noted the ministry’s intensive policy, “which in every way stimulates soybean production throughout the country, but primarily in the Far East.”

Over the past 10 years, Russia’s soybean production has been growing. Farmers are expected to harvest a record 3.9 million tons in the current season, which ends in 2019. The country is expected to ship up to 700,000 tons of the product abroad.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would increase its production and export of soybeans to China to fill a gap in the market, which was left by the protracted trade war between Beijing and Washington.

China has halted the import of soybeans from its biggest supplier, the United States, after imposing 25 percent tariffs on soybean imports. The levy came in retaliation to American tariffs on Chinese goods.

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