U.S. Soybean Meal Exports to Asia, Oceania Regions Up More than 230 Percent This Year

By John Baize

The current U.S. soy marketing year has seen a major increase in U.S. soybean meal exports to Asia, Australia and New Zealand. As of February 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) reports U.S. exporters sold 237 percent more soybean meal to Asia and Oceania than at the same point in the 2008/09 marketing year. The increase in sales of 1.676 mmt equals 78.4 million bushels of soybeans. The dramatic increase in sales this year resulted from the United States’ record soybean crop and the poor soybean crop in Argentina and India last year.


As usual, the Philippines leads the market for U.S. soybean meal in Asia. These buyers prefer to import U.S. soybean meal because of its higher nutritional value and do so when its premium over meals from other origins is not too great. In the 1990s, the Philippines purchased as much as 1 mmt of U.S. soybean meal in some marketing years, but the volume has lowered in recent years because Philippine buyers have been targeted by exporters from South America.

U.S. soybean meal exports to Indonesia increased over 1,000 percent this year compared with 2008/09. Argentina’s supply shortage and large purchases of containerized shipments from U.S. exporters contributed to the increase in exports to Indonesia. The sales of U.S. soybean meal to Indonesia this year already are the highest ever.

The sales of U.S. soybean meal to Australia and New Zealand this year are particularly encouraging. Prior to the 2003/04 marketing year, the U.S. supplied almost all of the two countries’ soybean meal. However, when U.S. prices shot up after the poor 2003 U.S. soybean crop, both countries shifted their purchases to South America and have not purchased much from the U.S. since. Hopefully, the importers will recognize the quality advantages of U.S. soybean meal this year and will continue to purchase a large share of their needs from the United States in the future.

Containerized shipments help facilitate the big increase in U.S. soybean meal exports to Vietnam. Buyers in Vietnam prefer to import in containers because they receive the quality they prefer in smaller quantities than importing on bulk vessels. Vietnam represents the fastest-growing soybean meal importer and consumer in Southeast Asia.

posted by Expert 2:13 pm