grain trade

USDA Announces Program to Secure China Soybean Market

Dan Industry News Release, Soybeans

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is busy preparing what it calls a “major initiative” usdaregarding American shipments of soybeans to China.

The USDA will ask soybean farmers to adopt new farming practices to minimize the amount of foreign material that gets harvested with their crops and can end up in exports to China. A program like this will depend on cooperation from the entire supply chain, including farmers, elevators, and shippers. The new program will also include several new control measures designed to keep U.S. soybean shipments cleaner, a requirement for entry into China.

A USDA release says success is vitally important in China, which is the largest soybean market for the U.S. China is demanding that the amount of foreign material in U.S. shipments of soybeans be cut in half. They want the maximum amount of foreign material not to exceed one percent. The details of the new USDA program will be announced this week.

There won’t be a lot of time to implement them because China’s new limits on foreign material actually began on January first.

From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.