US farmers face growing pain from Trump’s trade war

Low prices: A file picture showing soybean plants being harvested at a field in Chacabuco.Soybean futures on Monday skidded to their lowest prices in more than a decade and are down more than 20% from a year ago. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: American farmers, among Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters, face mounting financial pain from the president’s trade war with China and the growing risk that the damage will outlast the conflict.

The standoff with China over trade is compounding the strain of five years of falling commodity prices and losses from spring flooding. And as the dispute drags on, China is forging relationships with competing suppliers and farmers in other countries are reorienting operations to cater to the Chinese markets.