CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday its farm aid package would include $4.7 billion in direct payments to farmers to help offset losses from retaliatory tariffs on American exports this season.
FILE PHOTO: A fertilising mechanism fertilizes soybean fields in Gideon, Missouri, U.S., May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
The bulk of the payments, $3.6 billion, would be made to soybean farmers. That amounts to $1.65 per bushel multiplied by 50 percent of expected production, Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey said on a conference call.
China has traditionally bought about 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports. But it has been largely out of the market since implementing tariffs on U.S. imports in retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods.
“An announcement about further payments will be made in the coming months if warranted,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.
The aid package, announced at $12 billion in July, will also include payments for sorghum of 86 cents per bushel multiplied by 50 percent of production, 1 cent per bushel of corn, 14 cents per bushel of wheat, and 6 cents per pound of cotton.
Payments for hog farmers will be $8 per pig multiplied by 50 percent of Aug. 1 production, while dairy farmers will receive 12 cents per hundred weight of production, Northey said.
Sign-up for the program will begin on Sept. 4, to coincide with the 2018 harvest, and end in January. Farmers will need to present production evidence to collect payments and payments are capped at $125,000 per person.
The program will also include $1.2 billion in purchases of commodities,
