US soybean growers eye China market

US soybean growers hope to boost trade with China and expand cooperation into more areas, with industry insiders noting that soybean cooperation now spans far beyond traditional uses.

The US soybean crop is projected to be a record 123 million metric tons, according to the US Department of Agriculture's July market outlook. US farmers planted 34.5 million hectares of soybeans this growing season, up 5 percent from a year earlier.

Randy Miller, a director on the board of the US Soybean Export Council, or USSEC, told a conference on Thursday that what worries him most is "the things we can't control".

"The markets, the weather, policy uncertainty — all of that just kind of piles up," he said.

Soy Connext, the annual conference hosted by USSEC, opened on Thursday in Chicago, Illinois. Roughly 400 international buyers from 67 countries are attending the gathering, including 30 Chinese buyers working in food processing, oil crushing, feed manufacturing, and soybean research.

The conference features expert panels on sustainability, global market dynamics and supply chain resilience, alongside a product exhibition and one-on-one meetings that connect international buyers with US exporters.

Participants said the opportunities for soybean cooperation now extend well beyond traditional feed applications to industrial uses, including soy-based plastics, adhesives and lubricants.

Scott Metzger, president of the American Soybean Association, said input prices and the cost of production are a constant preoccupation for growers, and weigh even more heavily during difficult economic times such as the present one. What has been encouraging, he said, is "China coming back into the market".

Standing behind a table displaying an array of soy-based industrial products, Paul Burke, a partner at Commodity & Cooperator Services and a consultant to the Illinois Soybean Association, said he is looking for Chinese partners to introduce both the products and the technologies behind them, because he sees a shared interest between the two countries.

Manufacturing soy-based products harms neither the environment nor human health, Burke said, noting that they contain no "forever chemicals" and are fully biodegradable.

The US soybean industry has been investing in the development of such products for 35 years and now has many commercialized technologies, he said. The Illinois Soybean Association recently decided to begin promoting them internationally.

Both countries have goals to be carbon neutral, so there's a natural connection between the two sides to work together, he said.

The products include soy-based lubricants, adhesive removers and sealants. One that has proved particularly successful in the United States, Burke said, is a soy-based sealant applied to asphalt, which performs more effectively than conventional sealants.

Burke added that he has heard of growing interest in China in exploring ways to channel soybean oil into such products.

Increased utilization

His organization plans to take part in the China International Import Expo in November. Beyond promoting branded products, Burke said, there is also the possibility of introducing the technology to Chinese companies. For Illinois growers, the goal is simply to increase total utilization of soy, he said.

Ted Brandt, vice-chairman of the North Dakota Soybean Council, met representatives of two Chinese oil-crushing companies during one-on-one sessions at the conference.

"I think there are a lot of things that we could take away from each other and grow that way," Brandt told China Daily.

Soybeans are present in far more products than most consumers realize, Brandt said. While attention tends to center on feed and food, the crop can be used to manufacture tires, shoes, cleaning products and plastics to replace petroleum-based materials.

For some international traders, the commercial relationship with China is already deeply embedded.

Diaa Ghaly, managing director of Trans Globe, said his firm is a global exporter of grains and oilseeds, supplying feed mills, dairy farms and poultry farms. China is central to its operations, as it is the source of the feed additives it imports; the company packages in China and exports its products from there.

Ghaly pointed to the rapid development of Chinese feed manufacturers, citing New Hope and Haid, two major China-based global animal and aquaculture feed producers, as an example.

"We are not only buying from China, we are selling through Chinese feed mills that are based internationally," he said, adding that this is something both the US and China should be proud of.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com