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Global challenges fuel volatility in organic grain market

Global challenges continue to fuel volatility in the organic grain market.

Clarkson Grain Company merchandiser John Merna tells Brownfield the industry is still feeling the effects from the halt of organic soybean imports from India in 2021.

“About 40% of our soybean use was coming from India, and there were a lot of tests that came back showing the grain wasn’t as pure as the USDA would like to see and didn’t deem them to be organic. We are starting to see that from a couple of different countries.”

Merna says the continuous war in Ukraine limits supplies coming from the Black Sea region.

“We never know when that is going to end and there is not really a great outlook on it. However, we do know that in the short term it is a very limited supply that we can get from there, when we can get any. That is a continuous worry.”

And he says the drought in Argentina could limit the opportunity to import from South American as well.

Merna says about 17% of US organic corn demand and around 50% of organic soybean demand comes from foreign imports and there has been a steady increase in demand for the last two decades.  

Brownfield interviewed Merna during the 2023 Organic Grain Conference in Champaign, Illinois hosted by The Land Connection.