By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO (Reuters) -Archer-Daniels-Midland, one of the world’s biggest grain merchants, is offering incentives for U.S. farmers to deliver soybeans to one of its major processing facilities this month as low prices have slowed selling by growers, a grain trader and a company employee with knowledge of the matter said.
In an unusual offer during the peak of autumn harvesting, ADM is allowing farmers to deliver soy to its facility in Decatur, Illinois, and set the final sale price later, without paying for storage, the two sources said.
In exchange, ADM will take ownership of the soybeans, enabling it to process the crops, they added.
A company spokesperson declined to comment.
Bumper harvests have been pressuring crop prices and farmers are reeling from high costs for fertilizer and other inputs. What’s more, China, the largest soybean importer, has responded to President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs this year by turning to South America, depriving U.S. farmers of their primary market.
FARMERS PUT CROPS IN STORAGE
Many farmers are putting soybeans into storage in hopes of getting better prices down the road, growers and analysts said, leaving fewer supplies available to major U.S. processors.
ADM’s offer, known as free deferred pricing, will be available to farmers until the end of October, and those who participate have until September 2026 to set a sale price, according to the company employee.
“That tells me they need beans, that they don’t have enough beans to keep their process running,” said David Isermann, a farmer in Streator, Illinois, who will not take part in ADM’s program.
Farmers said ADM’s offer was unusual because processors typically have access to plentiful supplies during harvest time.
This year, farmers had agreed to sell less of their crop than normal heading into harvest season, Miranda Wamsley, ADM’s vice president of producer origination, said in an interview last month. She did not provide specific amounts.
Some farmers said they normally market about half of their expected crops by the time harvest begins but had sold about 20% or less this year.
“Because the prices are low, everybody is storing grain on the farm and saying: ‘No, you’re not getting my grain until prices go up,'” said Steve Pitstick, a farmer in Maple Park, Illinois.
Commercial grain firms still need crops to process into products such as vegetable oil.
In September, U.S. soybean crushings jumped to their fourth highest level for any month, according to National Oilseed Processors Association data released on Wednesday.
FARMERS STRUGGLE TO MAKE MONEY
Deferred pricing is potentially attractive to farmers harvesting big crops because they otherwise must figure out where to put supplies if they do not want to sell.
Storage space is limited on farms and costs a few cents per bushel per month at grain elevators. Crops also can be damaged in storage.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week that the Trump administration could provide an aid program for soybean farmers once the two-week-old government shutdown ends.
“An alarming number of farmers are financially under water,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told Trump last week in a letter seeking payments for farmers.
Although markets remain weak, processors like ADM recently raised their basis bids, or the difference between futures and cash prices, to encourage crop sales, analysts said.
The soybean basis on Wednesday improved by a nickel per bushel at Decatur, a grain processing hub, after rising by 20 cents last week.
Hoping for better prices, several farmers said bids could rise further if growers find ways to store crops without agreeing to deferred pricing.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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