Checkoff directors promote northern-grown soybeans in Indonesia

Two South Dakota soybean growers were among those on a Northern Soy Marketing (NSM) mission in Indonesia. Northern Soy Marketing Vice Chair David Struck and Director Mike McCranie traveled with Minnesota farmer and NSM Chairman Glen Groth, as well as Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota and Bob Swick, a poultry nutrition consultant. The aim of the trip, said McCranie, was to cultivate potential markets for soybeans leaving the Pacific Northwest from which most exported South Dakota soybeans exit the U.S. Indonesia is one of those destinations.

“They’re a large populated country, their incomes are shifting where they’re more middle class and they can afford more protein in their diet,” McCranie told the South Dakota Soybean Network prior to traveling. “One of the meats that they really like is poultry and so with our expansion of soybean meal in our part of the Dakotas, we’re going to have a lot more soybean meal to export and we have to find markets for that.”

McCranie is clear that the United States has many advantages over Brazil, its biggest soybean export competitor in Southeast Asia.

“I think not only do we have good quality and all that, but we’re a very reliable source and we can get those beans or meal to them off the Pacific Northwest a lot faster on the ocean than they can coming out of Brazil,” said McCranie, who farms at Claremont, in northeastern South Dakota.

With the largest population and economy in Southeast Asia, Indonesia’s animal feed production is projected to grow three percent annually, which will increase the use of soymeal 47 percent by 2035 and 40 percent by 2040, according to a news release from NSM. In Southeast Asia as a whole, animal protein consumption is projected to achieve a compounded annual growth rate of 20 percent in the next five years; the region needs to increase its purchase of soybeans and soymeal exponentially to meet demand. 

Traditionally, soy quality is based upon crude protein content, but calculating the critical amino acid value paints a more accurate picture of soy nutritional value. Northern Soy Marketing, made up of South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, promotes northern-grown soybeans specifically set apart by their comparatively high critical amino acid values.

“Everybody thinks that just because it’s high in protein means that it’s a better meal, well we’ve got scientific data that proves that if it’s too much crude protein, the animal does not utilize it in the feed ration,” said McCranie. “It goes out as a waste product.”

The mission had checkoff support from the U.S. Soybean Export Council.