DAVENPORT, IOWA, Sept. 16, 2013 – Chinese agricultural leaders teamed up with U.S. exporters to ink 13 contracts for 4.83 million metric tons of soybeans worth $2.8 billion during an elaborate signing ceremony hosted on the sidelines of the U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange here.
“China is an important trade partner of the U.S. soy industry,” says Kentucky farmer Randy Mann, chairman of the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), which hosted the Exchange. “We look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with our largest international customer,” says Mann.
In the last marketing year, the United States exported about 1.8 billion bushels of soy, valued at $23 billion. Checkoff-funded efforts have helped turn China into the biggest international destination for U.S. soy. Customers in China bought 850 million bushels of U.S. soy last year, or more than one out of every four rows grown.
“These contracts speak to U.S. soybean farmers’ work to produce high-quality soybeans,” says Jim Stillman, chairman of the United Soybean Board (USB), which co-sponsored the Exchange with the American Soybean Association (ASA). “The U.S. soy industry is committed to meeting the demands of our customers, and we are doing that by growing the best crops we can,” says Stillman, a soybean farmer from Emmetsburg, Iowa.
“This is the first year we’ve held the U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange, and we’re very pleased that purchase commitments resulted from the event,” says Kirk Leeds, chief executive officer of the Iowa Soybean Association. “The point of the event was to cultivate relationships with our customers, including China, and show purchasers the unrivaled U.S. transportation system.”
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