US ag exports drop in Asia, but increase in the Western Hemisphere

U.S. agricultural exports faced significant challenges in 2025, largely due to a global trade war, as President Trump raised tariffs on several countries, who responded with their own hikes or shifts in agricultural purchases.

The largest shift came in exports to China, which drastically reduced its purchase of soybeans. Compared to 2022, U.S. agricultural exports to China dropped by 55% last year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

While some countries have increased U.S. agricultural buying, including Mexico, India and Colombia, the overall drop in Asia has led to an overall deficit.

“For most of recent history, the U.S. was a net agricultural exporter. But in the last couple of years, that has reversed, and what used to be a persistent surplus has turned into a persistent and growing deficit, where we’re importing much more than we export,” said William Ridley, associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in a recent report.

In 2025, Asia remained the largest export destination of U.S. agricultural goods, but the continent also saw the largest decline from 2022 at more than 28%.

In November, China agreed to increase its U.S. soybean purchases, but Ian Sheldon, a trade policy expert at Ohio State University, recently told Brownfield Ag News that it’s unlikely to return to pre-trade war levels, as the large Asian country has been looking to other nations for its soybean needs.

“China has clearly been diversifying its import supplies; it’s been doing it for some time, but it has been doing it more aggressively within the last few years,” Sheldon said.

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