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The head of the U.S.’ busiest port said China is on track to buy less than one-third of the American agricultural products it promised to purchase in 2020, the first year of a trade pact between the world’s biggest economies.

Disruptions to the food supply chain brought on by the coronavirus pandemic extend to farmers and their products, according to Andrew Novakovic, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University.

Machinery giant Deere & Co. delivered an unexpected increase in earnings and maintained its annual outlook as early signs of stabilization in the U.S. farm sector offset a slowdown in construction. Shares rose the most in three years.

Deere & Co. delivered a more cautious outlook than expected for the year ahead as simmering U.S.-China trade tensions and difficult growing conditions keep North American farmers from replacing large equipment.

WASHINGTON — China is lifting a five-year ban on U.S. poultry, a goodwill gesture at a time when the world’s two biggest economies are trying to finalize a tentative trade deal.

With U.S. grain exports expected to fall more than 20% in the 2019 crop year, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. are making less money buying and selling crops.

Truckers doing business in counties under quarantine are playing an unwitting role in the spread of the spotted lanternfly.

Cargill Inc., one of the world’s biggest agricultural companies, plans to spend an additional $75 million to expand in pea protein in the U.S. as traditional meat producers continue a shift to alternatives.

China is stepping up its soybean buying in Brazil as growers in Argentina continue to hoard and the Asian nation avoids American oilseed after an escalation in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Corn futures plunged by the exchange limit, heading for their worst day in at least six years, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported more of the grain was planted than analysts had estimated.