Under Trump, US cedes its share of China's beef market to Australia

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

September 29, 2025 4:21 AM EDT Updated 7 hours ago


CANBERRA/CHICAGO, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Australian beef has replaced U.S. supply in China since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars that have in previous years gone to the U.S. cattle industry into Australian pockets.

U.S. shipments to China, worth around $120 million a month, collapsed after Beijing in March allowed permits to expire at hundreds of American meat facilities and as Trump unleashed a tit-for-tat tariff war. Other U.S. farm exports to China, the world's biggest food importer, have also suffered since Trump retook power. On soybeans alone, U.S. farmers have lost out on shipments worth billions of dollars during the current harvest season.

U.S. beef exports have in general declined in recent years as drought shrank the country's cattle herd, reducing production and pushing prices to record highs. But the drop in trade with China has been far more sudden and extreme.

The value of U.S. beef sent to China fell to just $8.1 million in July and $9.5 million in August, Chinese trade data showed, compared to $118 million and $125 million in the same months a year earlier. Australia has mopped up. Its beef shipments to China shot from $140 million a month in the two years to March to $221 million in July and $226 million in August.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/under-trump-us-cedes-its-share-chinas-beef-market-australia-2025-09-29/

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"Just give him time..." (the MAGats beg).

[IronLionZion]

1. America First!

Australia is closer so they would save on shipping costs.

The MAGA answer is they think beef is going to get cheaper in the US. They don't quite make the connection that farmers want higher prices for it to remain profitable. Ranch land is expensive in the US.

[Botany]

2. FAFO Trump voting farmers, meat producers, meat packers, and commodities traders

I hope the leopards don’t get too much face meat. Didn’t they learn when Trump lost the sorghum
market to China in his first term.



Sadly, the American people will get to bail them all out and not with “Trump’s Tariff Surplus.”

[tblue37]

5. MAGA. learn? Never!

[patphil]

3. I bet those farmers and ranchers are glad that Trump is making America great again.

I'm talking about those foreign farmers and ranchers. Domestic farmers and ranchers are getting destroyed.

[popsdenver]

6. Yup

First they came for the farmers, and the MAGA's did nothing,

Now they have come for the Ranchers, and the MAGA's did nothing.....

Soon they will come for the other groups of MAGA's and there will be No MAGA's left to do anything about it......

Republican/Trump Inc.... is starting to go after their Voters and Corporations that put them into office, now that they both have outgrown their usefulness...............

Maybe at some point we will see large demonstrations in cities, with bonfires, and all of them throwing in their RED MAGA Ball caps....

[OhioTim]

24. I've Seen Interviews With Farmers

and ranchers saying that even though they're being hurt economically, they still support Trump.

[Irish_Dem]

27. The MAGAs will sacrifice their own children.

Let them die with no vaccines.
And let them die because guns are more important than people.

So yes they will vote for him no matter what.

[patphil]

28. Yeah, their businesses are secondary to their loyality to Trump.

Of course when their properties are foreclosed, and their family is living in a trailer park they might have a change of heart.

[nitpicked]

4. NPR had a slightly different take on the US beef market

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/18/nx-s1-5534424/beef-prices-record-high-cost

Why beef prices are higher than ever (and shoppers are finally resisting)

(snip)
How has the price changed since before the pandemic?
Up 51% since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(snip)

In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued to record a shrinking number of U.S. cattle and calves, forecasting that beef production would decline 4% over this year and another 2% in 2026.

Meanwhile, foreign imports are also down. Brazilian beef faces a 76% tariff. Fears about the screwworm parasite have led the USDA to block livestock from crossing from Mexico to the U.S. to safeguard the nation's food supply.
(snip)

Repopulation is still going very slowly — for new reasons. Facing ever-higher operations costs, ranchers are leery of investing in an expansion. And the record values that cattle can fetch mean that it's often more profitable to sell young females (called heifers) for meat than to keep them for breeding.
(snip)

[Bengus81]

10. I look at beef prices at the store, laugh and walk away. Have fun all you Trump voting ranchers

[miyazaki]

7. Fair Dinkum! nt

[twodogsbarking]

8. Beef prices are up and quality is down. Supplies are uncertain. It ain't like it were just a few years ago.

[Bengus81]

9. Farmers,ranchers voted for that POS by 90%+ numbers and are getting BURNT to the ground

But...you MAGA's out in the sticks keep telling yourselves how you somehow "owned the Libs" when Fat Hitler won again.

[Bayard]

11. The beef industry is big and powerful

I expect those beef tarrifs to be dropped quickly. I also expect beef prices here to drop dramatically because of the glut.

[Prairie Gates]

17. These aren't tariffs...China is just shifting its buying in response to the other tariffs

They have already instituted a near total ban on US soybeans; beef is in the mix, too.

Ultimately, China is demonstrating that Trump's initial claim behind ALL the tariffs (i.e., that trade with China is unfair) is not true. China pumps billions into US agricultural markets, and can withhold those billions as well.

Big gain for Brazilian soybeans and Australian beef.

Oh well.

[Botany]

19. Don't forget he has now lost the Chinese market for sorghum for the 2nd time.

It used to be that just about all of the sorghum produced in America was already sold before it was
planted to China but now Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Australia, and some other nations have taken
America’s place in the growing and the selling of sorghum to China.

Btw sorghum is a great crop because it doesn’t need irrigation. I hope those Trump voting sorghum
farmers in the Great Plains all get hurt badly but Trump will use U.S. tax dollars to bail them out all
the time lying that the money is coming from “the tariff surplus.”

[Bayard]

29. Okay

Got'cha.

[Bluestocking]

12. This is great news for the environment

Beef production is a major contributor to climate change

[quakerboy]

13. Trump is a genius!

IF you tariff the beef market out of existence, you dont need the workers you deported.

Now, if he just holds strong and completes the destruction of all other US economic interests, all the immigrants, educated folk, and elites will self deport, and the country can be more easily brought to heel under whatever technical form of government they decide to replace democracy with.

[ananda]

15. Same for farms and food.

Easy peasy.

[ananda]

14. Now they're be more wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Poor Magats.

[Prairie Gates]

16. Beef farmers voted overwhelmingly for Trump...they have to live with it

Otherwise it's ... what's that term they always like to use ... a

MORAL HAZARD

[swong19104]

18. Maybe it might lower prices domestically

Since that beef has to go somewhere. Still, beef producers will take a financial hit. And if some were running on thin margins, they could take a loss.

[twodogsbarking]

20. The marketplaces that Trump has impacted were part of delicate balance systems that maximized

availability and many other factors. Disrupting one aspect can have a tsunami like ripple effect on the entire commodity. We are seeing this in more and more products daily. Price follows supply or lack thereof. The brown stuff has just started hitting the fan but the blades are turning fast. Look out.

[Scalded Nun]

21. No need anymore to ask 'Where's the beef?'

[BumRushDaShow]

22. You need Clara for that!

[Scalded Nun]

23. 'Dig her up!!' Or maybe just use AI?

[BumRushDaShow]

26. I expect they would AI her in a minute!

[Miguelito Loveless]

25. I notice that despite the massive surplus of beef not sold

Prices for beef continue to skyrocket.