China is reported to have purchased two cargoes for December shipment, totaling approximately 120,000 tons of US wheat. One of the cargoes is American soft white wheat and the other is spring wheat.
This would be China’s first purchase of US wheat since October last year. So, this is definitely a sign that Beijing is trying to play nice at least in the month immediately following the latest “deal”. Over time, don’t be surprised if China simply forgets that it has to keep such commitments. We have seen this story play out many times.
In any case, China’s grain imports have declined sharply over the past few years as domestic production has increased. For some context, China was arguably the largest grain importer in 2021-22 with purchases of about 60 million tonnes. This figure dropped to only 20 million tonnes during the period last year.
