A domestic market for soybeans and soybean oil continues to develop. As more crush plants come online, USDA is forecasting new records. At the Ag Outlook Forum, USDA’s NASS projecting soybean crush to top 2.3 billion bushels as Renewable diesel production continues to expand.
Growers at the CHS Ag Industry Day heard from the head of CHS who’s bullish about the profit potential for producers in the northwestern corn belt in 2023 and beyond due to the explosion in demand for green fuels. CHS President and Chief Executive Office Jay Debertin told farmers at the CHS Ag Industry Day in Grand Forks, that farmers in North Dakota and neighboring Minnesota will benefit from a 25% increase in U.S. soybean crush capacity by 2025. “Additional processing is an additional option and most farmers that I know like more options, and I think they are going to get them with more processing being built to crush more soybeans targeted a this renewable diesel industry that’s kind of exploding.”
In North Dakota three plants are planned with a total of 138 million bushels of crush capacity. Those include a 42.5-million-bushel plant near Casselton, a 53-million-bushel facility at Spiritwood and 42 mb plant north of Grand Forks. That will mean a fight for more soybean acres or a shift in the marketplace.
Debertin says, “You know if there is more processing over the next few years that will be an additional demand on soybeans that either will come from new acres that go to soybeans or a reduction of exports.”
Farmers in the area are welcoming the increased demand for their product as they’ve been working the to develop the soy based biofuels market.
Theresia Gillie a farmer near Hallock, Minnesota is past president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. She says, “We as soybean growers we want to grow the energy, let us grow it I’ve said that for years. I’ve been in the soybean board for a long time, and I’ve said please let me grow it.” She says that will also mean more meal, but they hope to export it or expand livestock feeding.
Of course, the hope is that increased demand will lead to higher prices in the long run for producers in the area and an improved basis.
The American Soybean Association says the expanded crush capacity announced by companies across the U.S. will increase soybean oil supplies by 5.5 billion pounds, enough to make 700 million gallons of renewable diesel.
