Soybean windfall brings pain to Argentina’s crushing industry amid US-China trade war

[https://invezz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/20250918_2018_Soybean-Trade-Tensions_simple_compose_01k5emnfvdfrw99ys859355q7a.png] Chinese import restrictions from US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China have reverberated through markets for global agricultural commodities, with Argentina as the trade war’s both beneficiary and victim. Exports of raw soybeans to China reached a six-year high last month, but they are arriving at a time when Argentina’s powerful soy crushing industry lacks supplies. The paradox is clear: strong exports abroad have long robbed domestic processors of the beans they crush into meal and oil, Argentina’s most prized agricultural exports. According to the CIARA-CEC grain exporters and processors chamber, idle capacity at the national crushing plants was already at 31% in July and has since increased. “As an oilseed industry, we are concerned. “This means fewer jobs in Argentina and lower export value,” said Gustavo Idigoras, head of CIARA-CEC. “This trade war has not brought benefits to Argentina; it has brought harm.” CHINA’S APPETITE FOR RAW BEANS China, the world’s top soybean buyer, has shifted demand away from the United States and toward South America as a result of tariffs and trade restrictions. Argentina, like Brazil,…