ST. LOUIS (December 10, 2013) - The U.S. soy industry has done it again, exporting an eye-popping 1.7 billion bushels of U.S. soy to customers around the world in the 2012-13 marketing year, which ended Sept. 30. The value of these exports comes to a record of more than $28 billion, a 19 percent increase from 2011-2012.
The final figures show farmers continue to meet customer demand for a reliable supply of quality products. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this total includes more than 1.3 billion bushels of whole U.S. soybeans, meal from 454 million bushels of U.S. soybeans and oil from 186 million bushels, which represents 56 percent of U.S. soybean production from last year.
"The reliability and quality of the U.S. soy supply are just a few reasons that customers keep buying U.S. soybeans, meal and oil," says Jared Hagert, soybean farmer from Emerado, N.D., and United Soybean Board (USB) farmer-leader. "Continuing to meet our customers' needs is very important to U.S. soybean farmers, and these numbers prove we are doing that."
Soy exports for the 2013-2014 marketing year are off to a good start with 87 percent of the total 2014 export forecasts already sold.
Top buyers of whole U.S. soybeans in 2013 include :
- China: 772 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Mexico: 98 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Japan: 63 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
Top buyers of U.S. soybean meal in 2013 include :
- Mexico: meal from 59 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Philippines: meal from 47 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Canada: meal from 43 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
Top buyers of U.S. soybean oil in 2013 include :
- China: oil from 37 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Mexico: oil from 35 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- India: oil from 21 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
The 70 farmer-directors of USB oversee the investments of the soy checkoff to maximize profit opportunities for all U.S. soybean farmers. These volunteers invest and leverage checkoff funds to increase the value of U.S. soy meal and oil, to ensure U.S. soybean farmers and their customers have the freedom and infrastructure to operate, and to meet the needs of U.S. soy's customers. As stipulated in the federal Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soy checkoff.
For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit www.unitedsoybean.org
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