U.S. soybean meal has had a steady hand on the wheel of demand for many years, with oil riding shotgun. But it’s a new day — oil’s in the driver’s seat, offering new routes to farmers.
Demand for soybean oil is on the rise; it’s a popular input for a wide variety of products. According to the USDA Production, Supply and Distribution database in February, soybean oil demand has grown even within the past year. During the last marketing year, 9% of U.S. soybean oil was exported, 54% was used for food, feed and other industrial uses and 37% went to biofuels. Compare that to this marketing year, with a dip in exports to 5% and a bump in domestic demand for use in biofuels to 42%.
“We’ve seen a recent surge in soybean oil demand here in the U.S., which is projected to continue to grow in the next couple of years,” says Mac Marshall, VP of market intelligence for the soy checkoff and U.S. Soybean Export Council. “That’s driven by the build-out of renewable diesel facilities, which use soybean oil as a feedstock.”
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