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Oilseed Processing

NOPA member processing facilities play a critical role in the oilseed industry value chain by connecting upstream agricultural producers with downstream consumers.

Decisions into which market a grower should sell his crop are complex and generally determined by location, the size of the operation and the prices being paid by each market outlet. For example, U.S. soybean growers generally sell their crops to elevators, soybean processors, food processors or directly to the export market. Additionally, bean exports may be transported through elevators as beans or sent to processing plants to become meal and oil before being moved by rail, truck or barge to export grain terminals located in the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast. Most soybean processing plants are designed and maintained to operate 24/7 utilizing three shifts for approximately 345 days a year.

NOPA members process nearly 50% of all soybeans grown in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts for Marketing Year (MY) 2019/20 that the domestic soybean crush will amount to about 48.4 percent of total use of U.S. soybeans, with almost an identical percent going to the export market. The remaining three percent goes to seed production with a fraction for residual use. Thus, almost one-half of the U.S. soybean crop is purchased by domestic crushers— the rest is mainly exported to over 50 other countries to be processed into meal and oil.

Of the soybean meal that is projected to be used in MY 2019/20, over 70 percent will be consumed in the U.S., largely by poultry and pork producers. The remainder will be used in other livestock feeds and 27 percent of the U.S. soybean meal will be exported to over 60 foreign countries.

With respect to soybean oil, 54.3 percent of total usage for MY 2019/20 will go to food, feed and industrial uses, while approximately 34.4 percent will be used for domestic biodiesel and renewable diesel production. The remaining 11.3 percent will be exported to almost 40 countries.

NOPA members provide value-added soybean products to essential agricultural and industrial markets.

Soybean meal is a high protein vegetable product that is used by animal feed millers and the soy protein industry. Soybean meal provides the protein for these animals and is fed mostly to poultry and hogs. The soy protein industry uses meal to produce protein concentrates and soy protein isolates used for human consumption. Soybean meal in the U.S. is sold to animal feed mills, aquaculture operators, feed lots, soy protein producers and the export market.

Soybean oil, the other processing by-product, is a vegetable oil used in cooking, biodiesel production and making of biodegradable plastics and adhesives. Processed oil, commonly referred to as crude soybean oil, is sold to refiners, food processors with refineries, biodiesel refiners and industrial markets. Refiners buy the crude oil and further refine it into soybean oil that can be bottled and sold to food processors and used in foods like mayonnaise or salad dressings. Biodiesel producers also use soybean oil as a feedstock and industrial companies use it to produce biodegradable plastics, adhesives and other industrial products.

One acre of processed soybeans infographic

Many NOPA members have co-located processing plants and refineries. This allows them to sell refined oil products directly to food processors and customers for frying and baking, as well as crude oil to biofuel refiners and industrial manufacturers.

NOPA facilitates coordinated partnerships across the oilseed processing industry value chain.

NOPA’s members and their professional staff are often either leading the charge or providing able assistance on a range of policy matters and initiatives to promote the oilseed processing industry’s interests. Continual engagement with the various industry segments on federal regulatory, legislative and trade issues is key to NOPA’s success. Our partners include domestic growers and end-users, such as livestock and poultry producers, consumer-branded companies, and biodiesel distributors as well as countless industry suppliers.