The new president of a key corn growers’ lobby on Wednesday urged the Trump administration to find new markets for U.S. agricultural products as farmers struggle with low crop prices, foreign trade barriers and high fertilizer and equipment costs.

Jed Bower, a fifth-generation corn and soybean farmer from Ohio, also called on Congress to approve year-round sales of fuel with 15% corn ethanol.

“We need new markets to help alleviate the economic crisis that is threatening the survival of countless family farms across the country,” Mr. Bower said in his first statement as president of the National Corn Growers Association. “That’s why we will continue to encourage Congress to act immediately to pass legislation that expands consumer access to higher blends of ethanol year-round and urge the Trump administration to move quickly to develop new foreign markets.”

The Trump administration is assessing whether it needs to send financial aid to farmers, who are drowning in a sea of high costs that began with Biden-era inflation in 2022 and got worse from tariff-induced increases.

Farmers say they’d prefer to gain access to new markets instead of getting a handout from Washington.

Corn growers want Congress to pass a bill that permanently authorizes E15, shorthand for a fuel blend made of gasoline and 15% corn ethanol instead of 10%.

Corn farmers say a higher ethanol blend is cheaper and better for the environment, so Congress should remove outdated regulations that prevent drivers from accessing higher-ethanol fuel in the summer months.

Soybean farmers, meanwhile, are panicking over the lack of Chinese buyers. 

The U.S. used to be the provider of choice for China. Yet its buyers are turning to sellers in Brazil because of trade tension and reciprocal tariffs.

Making matters worse, China recently purchased multiple cargoes of soybeans from Argentina even as the U.S. moved to bail out the South American country and its conservative leader, Javier Milei, a key Trump ally who is leading free-market reforms.

An Associated Press photographer snapped a photo at the U.N. General Assembly of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reading a text from “BR,” which many interpreted as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, raising concerns about the lack of soybean purchases alongside the Argentine bailout.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Biden administration, said on X that Mr. Bessent should “Immediately hit pause on this inappropriate bailout of Argentina that is further harming American farmers” and “affix a privacy screen to his iPhone, available online and in stores for roughly $10.”

The White House blamed the Biden administration for rampant inflation that increased costs for farmers and the lack of trade deals to open markets in new countries.

It says Mr. Trump is gradually securing trade pacts that will open markets such as the U.K. and Japan while it considers a possible aid package for farmers.

Mr. Trump and Ms. Rollins have suggested they could use tariff revenue to fund the aid.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.