A group of Indonesian farmers has traveled 9,000 miles to find food for their chickens.
It is how good Minnesota soy is good.
“Our northern soybeans are very clean, a low disease, a low and dry foreign material, and the quality of the protein can be better than the quality of the protein from higher soybeans,” said Seth Naeve, a soybean expert from the University of Minnesota, prospective buyers. “This is a different perspective of the gross protein content, but we try to focus on what the animal wants.”
Soy producers are in a situation devoid this year while China refuses to buy American soybeans in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s prices, which makes the prices and harvests sat. But farmers are not just a federal bailout; They are looking for alternative buyers.
“We have to beat the bushes and use these sales teams and show them how much the United States has an excellent product,” said Joel Schreurs, a farmer from Tyler and a member of the board of directors of Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council. “It is abundant, and it is relatively cheap at this stage. It is now the time to buy, if you are a foreign entity.”
The Tour group of last week, which also included soybean buyers from Vietnam and Thailand, is part of a wider and long -standing effort to build export markets for us. Schreurs, who also sits at the US Soybean Export Council, said that he had probably welcomed 20 sales teams in almost as many years on his farm, including the Southeast Asian group.
“We are working around the world to develop new markets,” he said.
Potential soybean buyers visit a ready -made test plot for harvest near the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota September 29. (Brooks Johnson / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
There are around 26,000 soybean farmers in Minnesota, and more than half of the state soy harvest is found as international exports, largely to feed livestock, according to the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.