SSGA speaks up for identity-preserved farmers in D.C. testimony

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Eric Wenberg tells USTR committee farmers need more market opportunity

Identity-preserved (IP) crop farmers were represented at a hearing Wednesday about China’s compliance with its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), regarding China’s current zero threshold presence limit placed on imports of non-genetically modified (non-GM) field crops.

On behalf of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) and with coordination and support of the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and American Soybean Association (ASA), SSGA Executive Director Eric Wenberg provided testimony to the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) in preparation of the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) annual report about China’s compliance with WTO rules. Wenberg was one of six individuals providing testimony on a range of issues, including intellectual property among others.

Non-GM food variety soybeans from the United States have been excluded from Chinese imports, although genetically modified soybeans are allowed for import, due to China’s lack of a nonzero low level presence threshold allowing for biotech soybeans to be mixed in.

“Farmers growing identity-preserved and non-GM crops must abide by stringent standards to produce specific varieties and traits to produce food for customers around the globe,” Wenberg said. “They deserve an additional market opportunity for their products. The soybean industry’s concern about this issue helps draw attention to the need to see a solution to this problem along with the other barriers to U.S. product sales. According to customs and trade data, food variety soya exports to all destinations for IP can reach $1.7 billion (2018), but we could sell more if the China market was open to us.”

IP soybeans and specialty grains are grown coast-to-coast, but are predominately exported from North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Arkansas and Wisconsin.

About Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance
SSGA is a national alliance of companies and producers focused on production, processing and shipping of specialty soya and grains worldwide. Its mission is to provide resources that communicate the quality, diversity and availability of their products and be a voice for food varieties in field crops.

Natto industry members meet for annual Natto Summit

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Twenty-three Japanese natto soybean buyers – along with natto suppliers from North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas and Ohio – gathered in Fargo, N.D., Sept. 3-5, for the third annual U.S. – Japan Natto Summit. The event was organized by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) with the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) serving as a partner.

Natto, a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, is often eaten for breakfast and is popular in Japan for its health benefits. Fermentation breaks down the proteins in the soybean, making it easier to digest than whole soybeans. Natto soybeans are small, with a clear hilum and thin seed coat.

Natto Summit attendees heard from experts regarding challenges and promotion activities in the natto industry, U.S. and global food trends, soybean production, agricultural technology, transportation, commodity supply and demand, gene editing and more. A common theme among speakers was the current declining agriculture economy that U.S. farmers are enduring.

Soybean ending stocks for 2018/2019 were a record high at 114.53 million metric tons (MMT), about 15 percent larger than the previous record set last year. A continued oversupply creates opportunity for producers to choose specialty beans.

“With commodity soybean production well below breakeven for most farmers, now is a great time to choose a premium crop,” says Dave Spickler of Lighthouse Commodities. “Growers need to think of ways to diversify.”

With natto producers, distributers and buyers all in one place, attendees were able to develop personal relationships and discuss issues in the industry.

“The Natto Summit is a great example of the farm-to-table relationship building with identity-preserved soya that’s needed in this era of a tough trade environment,” says SSGA Executive Director Eric Wenberg. “Japan’s natto industry and its associations and companies set the global standard for marketing and supporting their livelihoods by working together. The fact that the U.S. can be an origin and work with buyers to create exactly the crop characteristics they want for the product isn’t a niche – it’s an example of how building specific pathways for exports works well.”

Masako Tateishi, North Asia regional human utilization director for USSEC, agrees that relationships help create a successful Natto Summit and trade business.

“The Natto Summit allows buyers to get together with the rest of the industry to discuss challenges and opportunities and maybe create more natto sales in an industry that is growing in Japan,” Tateishi says. “Natto buyers also enjoy touring the facilities and seeing how the soybeans are handled safely and reliably.”

Three food grade soybean plants – SB&B Foods, Inc. in Casselton, N.D., Brushvale Seed in Breckenridge, Minn., and Richland IFC in Dwight, N.D. – hosted tours of their soybean research plots, breeding nurseries and facilities, where attendees saw each step in the food grade soybean cleaning process.

“Against Japan’s demographic changes, natto interest is growing. The Natto Summit shows how we all contribute to improve U.S. soy – the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) with its Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) funds, USSEC’s international organization muscle, and other soy partners in the United Soybean Board (USB) and the American Soybean Association (ASA),” Wenberg says. “The Qualified State Soybean Boards (QSSBs) from North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin put their grower funds into supporting a great event that SSGA was also happy to contribute to.”

China’s purchase of U.S. soybeans falling short of pledge

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By Susan Reidy for World Grain

China purchases of U.S. soybeans are only about half of what the nation said it would buy earlier this year, Reuters news agency reported.

The two nations have been locked in a trade war for months that have included steep tariffs and a severe drop in U.S. agricultural exports to China.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently said he would impose new tariffs against China in September.

China was expected to make large soybean purchases as a show of goodwill during trade negotiations, Reuters said. But U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Trade Ted McKinney told the news agency that China is falling short.

Beijing officials pledged 20 million tonnes of soybean purchases but so far, only 9 million to 10 million tonnes has been shipped and accepted, Reuters reported.

Weekly USDA data shows that China has made deals to buy 9,589 tonnes of U.S. soy in the current marketing year and 66,000 tonnes for the next year.

Those deals may have been in place before China’s Commerce Ministry said on Aug. 5 that Chinese companies had stopped buying U.S. farm products and could impose more tariffs, Reuters said.

Since its trade war started with the United States, China has been purchasing more soybeans from South America.

Russia forecast to set soybean production record

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By Arvin Donley for World-Grain.com

MOSCOW, RUSSIA — Russia is likely to set new records in soybean and rapeseed production in 2019-20, according to a July 11 Global Agricultural Information Network report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA forecast soybean production at 4.3 million tonnes, buoyed by increased planted area and yields. These same factors have led the USDA to project rapeseed output at a record 2.27 million tonnes.

Sunflower seed production is pegged at 12.30 million tonnes by the USDA, just slightly below the record of the previous marketing year.

The USDA forecast overall oilseed production in Russia in 2019-20 at 18.8 million tonnes, which will be roughly the same amount produced in 2018-19.

Exports of oilseeds in 2019-20 will reach an all-time high of 1.7 million tonnes, 7.3% higher than 2018-19, according to USDA projections.

“The major drivers of this growth will be exports of rapeseeds and soybean to China and an active supply of rapeseeds to Belarus that started in 2018-19 after the opening of a new plant for processing soybeans and rapeseed in this country by the company Sodruzhestvo,” the USDA said.

Due to the larger crop, the USDA expects to see an increase in oilseeds processing with the production of meals growing by 5.7% and vegetable oils by 4.9% year on year.

Given the surplus volumes of vegetable oils in MY 2019-20, USDA expects new records in exports of all vegetable oils — up to a total of 4.2 million tonnes, or 11.1% above the 2018-19 total.