DES MOINES, Iowa — For a harvest season that has been difficult for Iowa farmers, some optimism returned on Thursday morning.

After the Trump administration’s action got China to purchase United States soybeans, local farmers are glad that the market is once again available to sell to.

“That’s positive in the sense that we have that now moving forward. We do need to keep in mind that if it is to be 12 million metric tons of soybeans this market year, that is still less than half of what we would normally sell to China in a normal year,” said Grant Kimberley, the Senior Director for Market Development with the Iowa Soybean Association. Kimberley is a sixth-generation Iowa soybean farmer from Maxwell.

The 12 million metric tons, roughly 441 million bushels of soybeans was agreed upon to be purchased by China before January. And for every year until 2028, the agreement is to have China purchase a minimum of 25 million metric tons, or 841 bushels of U.S. soybeans. According to the Iowa Soybean Association, China purchased 22.9 million metric tons, 841 million bushels, of soybeans during last year’s market year. Historically, the country has purchased 28 to 36 million metric tons of soybeans annually over the last 10 years.

“We have to see this move forward, we have to see follow through. And we hope that it is much better than what has been talked about here. Because really it just gets us back to where we have been in the past,” said Kimberley. “There is many other things farmers have a lot of cost challenges to deal with. Inputs have still been stubbornly high, costs have still stayed high, prices are still not in a good position, so we will have to see what happens.”

Input costs for farmers have been growing steadily since 2023. Kimberley said most farmers have been losing money since that year because of it. But he wanted to emphasize that this is positive news for farmers as the market is reopened.

When pointing to next steps for what markets could be expanded on, Kimberley looks here domestically first. The EPA’s proposed 2026 Renewable Fuel Obligations is waiting to be finalized, and with that so is the 45Z tax credit from the Big, Beautiful Bill. Those incentives were increased from the Biden administration, but without it being set in stone, there is no one participating in that market.

Southeast Asia, Egypt, the EU, Latin America, Mexico, Colombia are all markets that Kimberley pointed to where there can be smaller gains made in that market share, but China was the biggest piece of that puzzle.