Tariffs Hit West Tennessee Farmers

Stoney Hargett is a soybean farmer from Crockett County.

He like many other soybean farmers across West Tennessee and the us have been seeing a volatile market due to the 25 percent tariff the Chinese government instituted last week.

“For the couple of different times that we saw the biggest drops, the next day they went back up. The market is lower than it’s been in six months or nine months,” said Hargett.

Hargett has been able to withstand this volatility and the decrease in prices of soybeans due to growing a variety of different crops.

“We raise cotton, corn, wheat and soybeans so we can kinda flex in different directions based on that.”

While Hargett has been able to weather the tariff induced drop in prices, other farmers haven’t been so fortunate when selling their soybeans.

“The reaction has been very devastating, to the point that farmers are losing a lot of money on soy beans and other ag products.”

Many of those losing money are here in West Tennessee where soybeans make up a large part of the agriculture economy.

“It’s very large, between seven and eight hundred million dollars’ worth of soybeans and cost of that is exported.”

Hargett says he know a lot of soybean farmers, including himself, will face a lot of short term pain because of the tariffs but he says the long-term reward is worth it.

“When it all settles out, long term, I do think we all will be a lot better off.”