The coronavirus outbreak and the ups and downs of the Sino-American trade war have underscored China's outsize impact on global food prices, along with the need for import-reliant countries like Japan to shield themselves from these swings.
The impact of Chinese demand fluctuations is especially obvious in soybeans. China's recent move to slash tariffs on U.S. imports, including soybeans, sparked hope among Chicago commodities investors that American soy exports would pick up. Trade tensions had destabilized the crop's price in international markets last year, at one point sending it to a 10-year low.
