Bunge Soars After Trump Targets Cooking Oil Imports From China

By Kirk Maltais

Agricultural stocks are rising Wednesday, a day after President Trump's Truth Social post threatening to ban exports from China of used cooking oil - a key ingredient needed to produce renewable fuels.

Shares of Bunge Global SA are leading the S&P 500 higher Wednesday, up over 12% to $92.71. Bunge is up over 19% year-to-date, although remains down 2.5% over the past 52 weeks.

"I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution. As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don't need to purchase it from China," his post read.

Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. were also rising, recently up 2.5% to $63.41.

Both Bunge and ADM operate several soybean crush plants nationwide, which make soybean oil among other products. Soybean oil is an ingredient used to produce biofuels, but before tariffs were introduced faced competition from used cooking oils that are cheaper to source.

Until tariffs escalated this year, the U.S. has been a top buyer of used cooking oil from China. Nearly $1.2 billion-worth of used cooking oil was imported stateside in 2024, nearly half of all the used cooking oil imported that year, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. Shipments have slowed to a trickle in 2025, with $356 million-worth of cooking oil imported from China through the first half of the year.

Separately, Bunge lowered its 2025 guidance, which now includes the company's merger with Canadian grains firm Viterra, an $8 billion deal that closed in July. Bunge now expects full-year adjusted earnings of $7.30 to $7.60 a share, down from its previous forecast of about $7.75. Analysts expect $7.39 a share, according to FactSet.

Representatives for Bunge or ADM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com

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October 15, 2025 12:22 ET (16:22 GMT)