BEIJING/PARIS: Chicago soybean futures fell on Wednesday as a delay in a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping dampened hopes for continued Chinese demand for U.S. soybeans.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.6% to $11.50 a bushel by 1140 GMT.
Trump on Tuesday said he was postponing a highly anticipated trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the war with Iran upends U.S. foreign policy and delays an effort to ease tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
The trip will now take place in about five or six weeks, Trump said.
READ MORE: Soybeans steady as war worries push crude oil higher
“The delay tempers market expectations of continued Chinese buying of U.S. soybeans,” said a Shanghai-based analyst who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Trump told the Financial Times in an interview on Sunday that he could delay his summit with Xi as he presses Beijing to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
Soybeans fell by their 70-cent daily trading limit on Monday following the news.
In South America, Brazil, the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter, said that the government will negotiate soybean inspection and safety requirements for shipments of the crop to China, following complaints from Beijing.
Traders had said tighter checks slowed shipments during Brazil’s peak export season, raising costs and threatening to disrupt supplies to China.
Grain trader Cargill last week suspended soybean shipments from Brazil to China due to changes in inspection procedures.
In other grains, CBOT wheat dropped 0.3% to $5.87-3/4 a bushel. Corn fell 0.4% to $4.52-1/4 a bushel.
“With oil no longer surging on a daily basis so far this week, grains are finding it harder to hold on to recent gains,” CM Navigator analyst Donatas Jankauskas said in a note.
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