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U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.

China, typically the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans, still hasn’t booked a single shipment of the crop from this year’s harvest.

Tyson Foods, JBS and Cargill have leaned on poultry profits to cushion losses at their beef businesses, which have been impacted by the worst U.S. cattle shortage in decades.

But farmers are worried that time is quickly running out to reach a trade deal with China in time to sell any of this year’s crop to their biggest customer.

Trump said Oct. 1 he plans to raise the issue when he meets Xi in South Korea at the end of October. But the clock is already ticking for U.S. soybean growers, with the harvest already under way.

The new permits were announced Sept. 29 by the Missouri Department of Transportation as most of the state experienced the third-driest August on record since 1895.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the U.S. will investigate suppliers of crop inputs like seeds and fertilizers for potential antitrust violations, sending share prices plunging.

Export markets for crops have dried up in the wake of the president’s trade wars and federal safety-net programs have shrunk.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Taiwan’s planned purchases “great news for Arkansas and especially our row crop farmers, who need all the assistance they can get right now.”

Soybean oil futures fell to the lowest in more than three months as Argentina moved to temporarily scrap export tariffs on the country’s crop cargoes, adding pressure to U.S. soy prices.