Managing for Profit

Export demand builds for soybeans

A record setting soybean sale was agreed to last week.  Chinese buyers Friday made a commitment to buy 5.1 million tons – $2.1 billion worth of U.S. soy.  Seven of the top Chinese soybean buyers and Chinese commerce officials signed the contract in Des Moines with representatives from the U.S. soybean industry.  Also on hand was USDA Foreign Ag Service Administrator Phil Karsting.

“If you walk along a soybean field, you can know that every other row of those soybeans is getting exported somewhere outside the United States, and every fourth row is essentially going to China,” Karsting told Brownfield Ag News.

Last year, U.S. soybean growers exported nearly 63 million metric tons of soybeans and soybean products, valued at almost $28 billion.  This year, soybean exports are projected to exceed that and set a record.

AUDIO: Phil Karsting (3 min. MP3)