TRAVERSE CITY — Leading figures in Michigan’s agricultural industry are sounding the alarm over a trade war that has led to tariffs, lost markets and could reshape our state’s export industry.
Agriculture is the second-largest economic engine in the state behind manufacturing, responsible for $2.9 billion in exports last year, according to the Michigan Agribusiness Association Executive Director Chuck Lippstreu.
“When you look at the full scope of food and agricultural production, around a quarter of jobs in our state are somehow tied back to the food value chain,” Lippstreu said. “Our state is an export success story. Michigan is proud to grow crops that are enjoyed by people on six continents. And just this past year and multiple times over recent years, our state has reached record export value.”
Trade relationships with countries like China and Mexico take decades to build. And farmers plan new crops and fields to fill these demands years in advance. But now, the new retaliatory tariffs, and the threat of more on the way could disrupt these long-term plans, according to Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Tim Boring..
“We’re going to see some of these acreage shifts because we just are simply overproducing too many of these commodities that don’t have markets across the world anymore,” Boring said. “That’s going to result in some serious ramifications for Michigan producers and really across the Midwest, (and) to what these cropping systems look like that we’ve spent decades building.”
The possibility of a protracted trade war couldn’t have come at a worse time for American farmers and growers, according to Farmers of Free Trade Executive Director Brian Kueh.
Farmers were already facing a 17% drop in global commodity prices by the end of 2026, according to a recent study by The World Bank, and a higher cost of doing business because of tariffs on key farm equipment.
“Farmers are not having a good year,” Kueh said. “And in agriculture, a bad year happens. Everyone knows that. Agriculture is high risk. The challenge is when you have multiple bad years in a row, which is where we’re facing … everything from tractor parts to farm chemicals to the steel and aluminum that go into grain bins, those are imported products or they contain imported products. And that means tariffs drive up the cost of inputs. So as a result, farmers are really getting squeezed.”
Industry advocates, like Kueh, also warn that other countries are looking to take advantage of the current trade war, and international markets are already trying to make up for Michigan’s losses.
“We have competitors,” Kueh said. “You think about the trade war in 2018 when we had a trade war with China that allowed Brazil to increase market share. It incentivized China to invest in Brazilian infrastructure. It incentivized Brazil to put more acreage under the plow. That means long-term, Brazil is now a much more well-positioned competitor to the U.S. than they had been before that trade war. And the same thing is happening again … If we don’t do this right, we can lose markets forever.”
President Donald Trump has said that he wants to make agricultural issues a key part of an upcoming trade deal with China, and that the issue will take center stage at an upcoming summit in South Korea this month. State officials in Michigan say they have been in contact with the President’s team throughout the process, and they have been pushing for stabilization.
“Number one, from the perspective of our organization, we have got to continue to prioritize major existing export destinations for Michigan growth products,” Lippstreu said. “That means somehow ensuring that we have export opportunities into one of our absolute largest trade partners, China. It means maintaining the North American partnerships that are so important for us here in Michigan, including our largest trading partner, Canada, and our second largest export destination, Mexico.”
In the meantime, everyone from state leaders to local farmers is struggling to track the updates coming via Congress, executive order and the president’s social media account. Industry-wide, there is an acceptance that the federal government has entered into a new phase of negotiations and is making trade deals.
“We know there’s a lot of moving pieces in front of us today,” Boring said. “And so growers are going to be at the forefront of having to make some really tough decisions and moving forward without a lot of certainty around how they build their businesses into the future.”