Mark's Market Talk for July 28, 2025

Last week the grain markets gave back everything we had gained the previous week. December corn was 9 cents lower, while November beans closed the week 15 cents lower. We did have corn sales last week to Mexico, South Korea, and unknown. Mexico also bought some beans. Midweek there was a corn sale announced going to China. Within minutes it was corrected to say South Korea. Had it actually gone to China that may have been the spark we needed to change course on the price of corn. We came to terms with Japan on trade issues, and rumor has it that we are very close on several others as the August 1 deadline gets closer. However, we do not have anything lined up with China at this moment. China is currently able to source their agricultural needs elsewhere right now. This will change in 2 or three months as their other sources dry up and they might be forced to come back to us. A reasonable trade agreement would be big right now and might help our prices turn the corner. The question has been asked if American ag can survive without China buying from us. The bigger part of this, can China survive without the US buying all that we currently buy from them. The trade wars all have winners and losers except when it comes to China. Without a reasonable trade agreement, both sides become big losers.