Special Report

Food-grade soybean shipments affected

Shipments of food grade soybeans have been slowed down by the West Coast port situation but should be clearing up with the recent labor agreement. Wayne Fredericks, president-elect of the Iowa Soybean Association spoke with Brownfield at Commodity Classic about it, “A lot of them go into the tofu food grade market. Most of our bulk soybeans go out of Grey’s Harbor, in bulk. They weren’t affected by the port slowdowns.”

Fredericks doesn’t see any long term damage to those markets, because soybeans are not perishable – unlike meat and produce markets in Asia that were negatively affected by the slowdown, “Those, you know, relationships that farmers have built with overseas buyers on identity preserved, especially on the food grade beans, this will help.”

But, Fredericks says, it does show how things can become messed up when they don’t have to be, “It’s amazing what kind of discussions can be over there with labor unions that appear to be earning pretty good wages already and still wanting more, so, I’m glad to see the situation being solved.”

The U.S. fresh meat sector says damage to the Asian market may be long-lasting.