December 11, 2013
US soy exports up 19% in 2012-13
US soy export reached 46.3 million tonnes in the 2012-13 marketing year, which ended September 30, with corresponding value of more than US$28 billion, a 19% increase from 2011-12 marketing year.
The final figures show farmers continue to meet customer demand for a reliable supply of quality products. According to the US Census Bureau, this total includes more than 35.4 million tonnes of whole US soymeal from 12.4 million tonnes of US soy and oil from 5.1 million tonnes, which represents 56% of US soy production from last year.
"The reliability and quality of the US soy supply are just a few reasons that customers keep buying US soy, meal and oil," says Jared Hagert, soy farmer from Emerado, N.D., and United Soy Board (USB) farmer-leader. "Continuing to meet our customers'' needs is very important to US soy farmers, and these numbers prove we are doing that."
Soyexports for the 2013-14 marketing year are off to a good start with 87% of the total 2014 export forecasts already sold.
Top buyers of whole US soy in 2013 include: China with 21 million tonnes of US soy; Mexico at 2.7 million tonnes; Japan with 1.7 million tonnes.
For US soymeal, top buyers in 2013 include Mexico, the Philippines and Canada while for US soyoil, top buyers are China, Mexico and India.
The 70 farmer-directors of USB oversee the investments of the soy checkoff to maximise profit opportunities for all US soy farmers. These volunteers invest and leverage checkoff funds to increase the value of US soymeal and oil, to ensure US soy farmers and their customers have the freedom and infrastructure to operate, and to meet the needs of US soy''s customers. As stipulated in the federal Soy Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soy checkoff.