China Phase One deal comes somewhat full-circle for Minnesota farmer

News

China Phase One deal comes somewhat full-circle for Minnesota farmer

A farmer who attended the China Phase One signing ceremony in January says it took the summer to start seeing the impact of the trade deal.

Theresia Gillie grows soybeans and wheat near Hallock in the northwest corner of Minnesota and is a past president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.

She says while it was thrilling to be invited to Washington D.C. for the signing of Phase One, the fruits of the agreement did not materialize right away.

“Most of the summer I really, really waited for the uptick in price. And of course then here, we started dealing with the weather issues, and I have to tell you that at that time when we’re dealing with our fields being flooded, that kind of took my attention.”

Gillie estimates about 25 inches of rain fell during the month of June.

But she tells Brownfield the outlook improved in August when prices started to climb largely on the back of Chinese purchases.

“And then it was like (prices) would just go up a little bit. Then of course we didn’t necessarily trust that (China) would honor a lot of (purchases), and they started really honoring them.”

Gillie says she’s sold some of her crop “on the way up” and encourages others to sell “on that uptick” instead of holding out for the market to peak.