Soybeans are not the only American commodity looking to get trade going again with China. Amy Franz is Chairwoman of the National Sorghum Producers, who says there are trade challenges in the sorghum industry too.
“There are, with the increase of inputs across the board, we always see those go up, rarely ever see them go down, and, of course, we see there’s been a hurt in the prices for our sorghum, so we continue to work on that front. But yeah, it is. It’s bittersweet to see these unexpected yields. But then, where do we go with this bumper crop?”
Franz said NSP is doing a lot of work on the trade front.
“The elephant in the room is China. For us, 70 to 90 percent of our sorghum bushels were exported to China, and I emphasize ‘were,’ so exports are down 97 percent. We have seen that momentum, pretend or act like they want to come back to the market, just getting signals. But signals are one thing. Actual boats moving on the water are a completely different thing. We did see a small quantity shipped to China. We’re hopeful that the green light is on, and we can get that going again. Our farmers desperately need it. We need China, but we also need to diversify markets as well.”
One place NSP is focused on is India.
“We really know that we’re needed there. There’s a battle between fuel and food.”