Hopeful signs following China trade breakthrough announcement

A late-October 2025 agreement between President Trump and Chinese President Xi was that China would resume importing soybeans from the U.S. after they suspended U.S. soybean buys this past spring. Two-and-a-half weeks after the announced agreement, agricultural cooperative Wheaton Dumont Coop, which serves farmers in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, said it would move at least four unit trains of soybeans destined for China, Mexico and St. Louis in late December and early January. In this edition of the Soybean Pod, Mount Vernon farmer and South Dakota Soybean Association President Kevin Deinert reacts with “a sigh of relief” to the original long-awaited deal between the two trade superpowers.