Japan: Poultry enjoy gobbling up US soy meal
Soy meal that is produced in the US seems to be the favoured form of feed of Japanese poultry for the last 50 years. Demand has now shifted and soy meal imports there are expected to skyrocket, according to the USDA.
It may come as good news for US soybean farmers, since US Census figures show Japan is the second largest buyer of US soy meal, in Asia.
Quality is the key.
According to the USDA, Japanese soy meal imports are expected to increase to 2.370 million metric tons in the 2012/13 marketing year. That is the meal from more than 110 million bushels of soybeans and an increase from 2.282 MMT in the 2011/12 marketing year.
“United Soybean Board (USB) research is creating a body of information showing soy meal produced from U.S. soybeans has consistently higher quantities of the five essential amino acids,” says Scott Singlestad, a USB farmer-leader who raises soybeans and corn in Waseca, Minn. “That’s given US soy meal a higher feeding value over its competitors.”
Singlestad discussed the value of US soy meal compared with soy meal from other parts of the world with poultry farmers, feed manufacturers and soy processors recently at meetings in Japan.
Gonzalo Mateos, Ph.D., from the University of Madrid in Spain, also told Japanese buyers about the advantages of US soy meal over soy meals the European Union imports from other countries.
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