grain and meat trader re the Chinese.

"It seems that we have not been hearing much about Brazil as of late seeing that their big crop, soybeans, has been harvested, but that was made up for overnight. First, the Chinese Ambassador to Brazil made comments that the two nations were prepared to develop a long lasting relationship that would take agricultural trade to new levels. Gee, one cannot imagine that was a comment directed at the U.S. For their part, the Brazilian Ag Ministry laid out their 10-year plan and are forecasting grain production of 302 MMT by 2027/28, which would be close to a 30% increase,69 MMT, over this years production. They also project total meat production to reach 35 MMT per year during that same time frame compared with 27 MMT today."

And that is just Brazil. I'm sure Argentina is talking at the table also.

The Chinese will still buy from us, imo. But we will pay by being the second choice, not the first choice. It's a terrible position. I was in a startup company in my last gig. Our problem was that we were the second supplier filling in gaps rather than the first supplier, which was our goal. It made production planning very, very difficult. Part of the cost of startups, I guess.