2023;  Four years after Trump's tariff war, SC farmers able to profit again — from soybeans

By Macon Atkinson Report for America corps member matkinson@postandcourier.com
Oct 13, 2023


Soybeans are transferred from a combine to the bed of a truck on Rizer Farms in Lodge on Nov. 17, 2020. File/StaffBy Lauren Petracca lpetracca@postandcourier.com

EDGEFIELD — From his 1,500-acre farm, Joe Derrick is powering the world's economy.

Derrick grows soybeans along with more than 2,600 other farmers in South Carolina. The bean, no larger than a penny, wields significant influence in the global market: its total U.S. export value was $34.37 billion in 2022. In South Carolina, soybeans on average bring in about eight times as much money as peaches, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

This year, South Carolina farmers like Derrick are turning back to soybeans as a cash crop after former President Donald Trump’s 2018 trade war with China and foreign tariffs crushed soybean profits for farmers.

An agreement between the U.S. and China brought a truce to the trade war in 2020. China agreed to purchase $200 billion in American goods, including purchases specifically for agricultural products. In the seasons that followed, as prices have fluctuated for other South Carolina crops like cotton, farmers have planted nearly a third of the state's acreage in soybeans.

Amid the renewed surge in profits, the normally-unheard-from South Carolina Soybean Board is rolling out a new video campaign to educate consumers on the role that row crop farmers play behind the scenes.

"If you live in a city, you may not know what farmers do on a regular basis," said Mary Catherine Cromley, a soybean promotion marketing specialist. "You may just think corporate farms. We wanted to bring the farmer to the table a little bit more."

South Carolina grows a diverse array of crops, but soybeans have long been an agricultural state superpower. From 2008 to 2013, soybeans were the second- or third-highest value field crop in the state, averaging over $100 million, according to research from Clemson University. Grown for oil and protein, it is one of the most important world crops with current global production at about 176.6 million tons.

South Carolina is able to sustain high soybean demand because of the state's animal agriculture, Cromley said. Soybean meal, or what's left after the oil is taken and the soybean is crushed, is often used for livestock food. Soybeans are also used in human food as protein substitutes and in soy sauce, breakfast cereals and bars.

Soybeans are also a good crop for farmers to add to their field rotation as they improve soil health, Derrick said. On his fourth-generation family farm in the Edgefield County town of Johnston (pop. 2,044), Derrick, a soybean board member, is planting 400 acres of soybeans this year. He has seen favorable results from his initial harvest after taking several years off.

"We've probably got the best looking soybean crop that we've had in a long time," he said.

Derrick is not the only farmer investing in soybeans this year. Soybean acreage planted in South Carolina in 2023 was 395,000 acres, up 12 percent from 2019 when production declined in the wake of the trade war. The USDA Crop Production Report released in September shows South Carolina farmers expect to produce 13.7 million bushels this year, up 18 percent from 11.6 million bushels in 2019.

Farmer Johnny Watts has planted 2,400 acres of soybeans this year and expects to harvest 1,100 bushels on his 6,000-acre family farm in Sumter County.

The trade war was "rough," Watts said. He and other farmers had barely recovered from historic flooding that wrecked South Carolina in 2015 before tariffs hit their profit margins.

"There was definitely some head-scratching and pencil sharpening," Watts said.

Prices plunged when China placed a 25 percent tariff on American-grown soybeans in retaliation for U.S. trade actions under Trump. Today in 2023, soybeans are going for about $13.30 a bushel. In August 2018 during the bean war, that price was $8.94.

Thousands of SC soybean farmers face big financial losses amid Trump's tariffs

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Exports to China were nearly halved in the years that followed, dealing a serious blow to farmers who were supplying the U.S.' largest foreign consumer. Annual trade losses were estimated at $9.4 billion nationwide, according to USDA data.

Tariffs in the U.S. and China were still in place when President Joe Biden took office despite the 2020 agreement. China had only purchased 57 percent of the U.S. exports it had committed to by the end of 2021.

But USDA data shows soybean sales to China have bounced back to nearly pre-2018 levels, and as demand resumed, South Carolina farmers have once again found themselves at the good center of an international economy.

The new advertising from the nonpolitical, nonpartisan South Carolina Soybean Board, seen on local TV during dinnertime, is intended to help farmers pool resources for research, promotion and education, Cromley said. The videos feature sweeping footage of rolling crop fields and interviews with farmers and Soybean Board members across the state about everything from pest control to sustainable farming measures.

While people generally know about produce farmers in their community, they might not be as familiar with row crop farmers who don't typically sell directly to the general public, Cromley said.

"We think that our farmers who may not have that direct consumer-facing role are also pretty important as well," she said.

The advertisements started in late August and will run through early November with longer features in Charleston set to run on WCSC-TV's "Palmetto Life" show over the next few months. The local board worked with the federal Soybean Board on the series and will only be billed for a portion of it, Cromley said.

Derrick said the promotion was a good idea.

"Until people realize really what farming is all about — what it takes in input and as far as all our costs and everything — I think it's a good idea to put it out for people to realize what farmers really do," Derrick said.

Derrick, who spoke personally and not for the board, said he plans to vote for Trump again in 2024 despite the tariffs' financial impact. While he wishes Trump would "stop tweeting," Trump was good for the farmer, he said.

Watts voted for Trump in the previous two elections but is still deciding who he'll vote for in 2024.

"We need something different in Washington, D.C.," he said. "I'm not sure what that difference is yet."

The trade war was "difficult but necessary," and Watts said farmers overall felt valued and supported during Trump's presidency. The Trump administration rolled out $28 billion to farmers to offset tariff losses, and a National Foundation for American Policy analysis found Trump-era spending on farmers was higher than the budgets of several government agencies.

"The importance of agriculture was recognized," Watts said.

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Macon Atkinson
Politics Reporter/Report for America corps member
Macon Atkinson is a politics reporter covering the 2024 presidential primaries with a focus on rural communities and issues. Macon is a 2023-2024 Report for America corps member. She previously covered city government and public safety for local newspapers in the Carolinas and Texas.