January Corn & Soybean Outlook Update

Farmers across Brazil have begun planting the 2025/26 crop season, with expectations for another record in corn and soybean acreage.

The U.S. soybean harvest began in September without any orders from the world’s largest buyer: China. American producers are harvesting a crop the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates at 4.3 billion bushels, and there is no indication of when shipments to China will resume. In a typical year, China buys more than half of all U.S. soybean exports. Meanwhile, Brazil set a record for shipments to China from January through August 2025. In this article, we present U.S. and Brazilian soybean trade flows to China during the last two years, analyze the trade relationship between these countries dating back to before the first round of the 2018 trade war, and consider the possible consequences if a trade deal is not reached this fall.