State-owned importer Cofco has booked its first new-crop cargoes since a trade agreement requiring 25 million metric tons in annual Chinese purchases took effect.
State-owned Chinese importer Cofco has booked at least six cargoes of U.S. soybeans for loading between September and October, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The bookings were not confirmed by name, as the sources were not authorized to speak publicly.
The purchases follow a summit between the leaders of the United States and China in May 2026 and build on a trade agreement in which China committed to buying 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually through 2028, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).
China had also agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons in the final two months of 2025, following a purchasing freeze earlier that year during tariff negotiations.
USDA export data confirms incremental sales to China
USDA disclosed in June that Chinese buyers had already committed to purchasing 200,000 metric tons of new-crop American soybeans, Bloomberg reported. FAS's own weekly export sales data, published directly on fas.usda.gov, shows continuing incremental sales to China through June, including a 132,000 metric ton tranche and a separate 334,000 metric ton tranche logged for delivery in the 2026/2027 marketing year, which begins September 1.
China's purchases remain below pre-trade-war levels
Since the start of the current marketing year, China's total soybean purchases remain below levels recorded before the trade dispute, per FAS data. To offset reduced Chinese demand, U.S. exporters have expanded soybean and soybean meal shipments to Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Japan.
Soybean purchases fell each year from a $17.9 billion peak in 2022 to $12.6 billion in 2024, then collapsed to $3.0 billion in 2025 as China halted buying during tariff negotiations. Shipments from January through May 2026 already total $4.6 billion, an 86% increase over the same five months of 2025. The full-year total for 2026 is not yet known.
The next scheduled FAS weekly export sales report will show whether the newly booked cargoes register as confirmed sales activity.
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