Soybean Photo: VCG

Sate-owned grain enterprise China Grain Reserves Group (Sinograin) will auction over 1.1 million tons of imported soybeans up for sale on Tuesday, according to a statement published on the website of China's National Grain Trade Center last Friday. 

This is the first sale of the year and the fourth since last month, the Reuters reported.

According to the National Grain Trade Center's statement, the auction was entrusted to Sinograin Oils Co, a subsidiary of Sinograin, and was organized by the National Grain Trade Center of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration and by provincial and municipal grain trading centers.

The trading activity will be conducted through online open bidding, and the entrusted lots will be traded according to trading sessions. Members are encouraged to log in to the national grain trading platform via the National Grain Trade Center website to participate, or they may go to the nearest provincial grain trading center for on-site transactions.

The price type for the imported soybeans in this auction is the seller's bulk grai truck-gate delivery price. No adjustments will be made for moisture or impurities, and screenings will be shipped together with the soybeans. Delivery will be from the seller's warehouse, and the seller is responsible for loading, according to the statement.

Eligibility and required qualifications of prospective buyers must be domestic soybean-crushing enterprises or feed-processing enterprises with registered capital of not less than 10 million yuan ($1.43 million).

Buyers should familiarize themselves in advance with customs policies and transport procedures for imported soybeans and confirm they can complete the necessary customs formalities. Buyers must have the ability to crush soybeans or to process puffed soybeans (expanded soybean meal) for feed — in other words, they must have capacity to process imported soybeans.

Both sellers and buyers must implement the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Inspection and Quarantine of Imported Reserve Grain throughout warehousing, transport and processing. This includes strict quality management and biosecurity measures: unloading, transportation and processing must be performed in closed systems; finished product flows must be clear and fully traceable; and all reporting obligations to the competent inspection and quarantine authorities must be fulfilled and their approvals obtained, according to the statement.

The state-run grain stockpiler held several auctions in December, 2025, the first such sales since Beijing and Washington reached an agreement at a meeting in South Korea in late October, 2025, the Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The large offer on Tuesday comes after feed producers and crushers secured about 900,000 tons of soybeans in the past three auction rounds, out of a total of nearly 1.58 million tons put up for sale, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from China-based commodities consultancy Mysteel, said the Bloomberg's report.

Last week, Sinograin bought 10 US soybean cargoes nearly 600,000 metric tons of US soybeans for shipment in March and May, according to a Reuters report on January 7. Sinograin held three public auctions last month to make room for US shipments, said the Reuters report.

The figures not only underscore the sustained demand of the Chinese market for American soybeans but also indicate China's stable position as a major soybean consumer, said Chinese analysts.

China imported 103.78 million tons of soybeans, up 6.9 percent year-on-year, in the first 11 months of 2025, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. China is the world's largest soybean importer. China imported an average of 61 percent of the world's available soybean supplies over the last five years and China has been the top buyer of US soybeans for years, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the American Soybean Association.

Global Times