BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama’s peanut farmers are reeling from a total collapse in exports to China this year, with shipments of the state’s signature crop dropping from $19.2 million in 2024 to nothing, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture data. The plunge, part of a broader 66% decline in Alabama agricultural exports to China worth about $24 million, stems directly from the Trump administration’s aggressive tariff hikes on Chinese goods and Beijing’s swift retaliatory duties on U.S. farm products.
State agriculture officials confirmed the stark numbers in a recent social media update, highlighting peanuts as the hardest-hit commodity in a market once vital for Wiregrass and southeast Alabama growers. Alabama produces more than 630 million pounds of peanuts annually across roughly 195,000 acres, making the loss of China — a top buyer just last year — a devastating blow to rural economies already strained by trade tensions. Federal analysts trace the pattern back to President Donald Trump’s first-term trade war, when China slapped retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture that slashed exports by billions and shifted buyers to competitors like Brazil.
Now in his second term, Trump’s renewed “reciprocal” tariffs on Chinese imports have reignited the cycle, with China responding by hiking duties on American crops to levels exceeding 80% in some cases, rendering Alabama peanuts uncompetitive. News reports from early 2025 warned of the risks as farmers braced for the fallout, yet the administration pressed ahead, prioritizing confrontation over market access for Southern producers. While a temporary suspension of some extra peanut tariffs offers faint hope for 2026, the damage lingers, forcing growers to chase alternative markets amid federal aid packages that provide only partial relief.
The export crater underscores how national trade policies hammered by the White House are exacting a heavy toll on Alabama’s agricultural heartland, where peanuts fuel jobs and family farms from Dothan to Enterprise.