The clear, crisp, cracking sound signals a good harvest for Ding Guangwei. At his farm in the northeastern Chinese city of Suihua, Ding has planted over 150 hectares worth of soybeans, a 35% increase from last year.

"Farmers are more willing to grow soybeans this year with new government allowances of 500 dollars per hectare on growing soybeans."

Each hectare of Ding's farm can yield 3.5 tons of soybeans, much more than in years past. And at least 3 tons of soybeans per hectare are expected across Suihua. A pretty good year.

XU XINCHEN SUIHUA, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE "While China's main soybean growing areas like Suihua are seeing a bigger harvest for legumes this year, domestically grown soybeans still have a long way to go to compete with imported ones. The good news though is that as companies replace their demand for American soybeans with domestic ones amid the ongoing trade tensions, the inventory of domestic soybeans has been decreasing, making room for new harvests, a positive sign encouraging soybean farmers."

Amid the trade stand-off with the US, Chinese firms have halted their orders for American soybeans, an estimated 30 million tons of them. That's three times China's own soybean production. The huge demand for soybean imports comes with more competitive prices overseas, namely from Russia and South America.

ZHANG SHUCHUN NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY EXTENSION RESEARCHER "Domestic soybeans, in fact, are pretty good, especially those grown in Northeastern China. But due to cheaper prices of soybean imports, domestic soybeans are still not favored by the market."

Zhang says improving the quality of domestic soybeans may be the answer to winning over the market.

ZHANG SHUCHUN NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY EXTENSION RESEARCHER "Protein content and oil content, when those things improve, China will likely gravitate more towards domestic soybeans."

Additionally, land for growing soybeans is limited in China since the country needs to designate land for other crops like rice, wheat and corn. So, to achieve a good harvest like the one in Suihua this year, Chinese soybean farmers may want to focus on quality, then quantity.