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Finding alternate markets to fill the gaps left behind isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t buyers out there, said Carsten Bredin, vice-president of grain merchandising for Richardson International, Canada’s largest grain company.

“You can sell those beans; it’s just that farmers don’t want to sell them at the current price,” Bredin said. “Our market is depressed no question. If you don’t have China, which controls almost 60 per cent of the market, you’re at a disadvantage. Canada is at the bottom of the price chain because of politics.”

I can deal with weather, I can deal with price uncertainty … but I can’t compete with the U.S. Treasury Ernie Sirski, a Manitoba soybean farmer and board chair of Soy Canada

Soybean prices fell from US$10.70 a bushel last year to US$7.80 in May — the lowest level since 2008 — before rebounding to a current US$9.33 a bushel on positive trade news. Indeed, China will buy US$20 billion of U.S. agricultural products in the first year if a Phase 1 trade deal is signed with the U.S., Bloomberg reported. Beijing also issued waivers for 10 million tonnes of soybean purchases this week.

But that doesn’t mean China will open the doors to Canadian farmers.

“I think it’ll be four or five years before China comes back to us,” said Sirski of Soy Canada. “I don’t know what happens in the meantime.”

A US$28 billion aid package from Washington has eased the pain of the trade wars for American farmers. For soybean farmers it has lifted the per-bushel price to roughly US$10.13, allowing them to sell at lower prices and frustrating producers north of the border, according to Soy Canada.

“I can deal with weather, I can deal with price uncertainty, I can do a lot to mitigate losses, but I can’t compete with the U.S. Treasury, said Sirski, who farms 5,500 acres at his farm two hours north of Brandon, Man. Like other Canadian farmers, Sirski’s soybeans came in late this year due to an unexpected snowfall and subsequent thaw that left sodden fields.

“We didn’t turn a wheel for 10 days,” he said. “But soybeans can take a lot of abuse.”

• Email: npowell@nationalpost.com | Twitter: naomi_powell