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Iowa Soybean leaders on trade mission to Bangladesh and Pakistan

Farmer-leaders of the Iowa Soybean Association have been on a trade mission to Bangladesh and Pakistan this week.

ISA president-elect Jeff Jorgenson of Sidney tells Brownfield those countries are two of the fastest growing markets for U.S. soybeans.

“Pakistan for example, five years ago, they hardly even imported a soybean,” Jorgenson says, “and now, this last year, I think it was 1.7 million metric tons—the year before that it was 2.5 million metric tons, total—and about 65 percent of that, or 70 percent of that, was U.S. soybeans.”

Fish is still a staple of the diet in Bangladesh and Pakistan, but Jorgenson says there’s been a big increase in the production and consumption of chicken.

“The U.S. Soybean Export Council has showed them how bringing the soybean meal into their feed rations is adding to their gains that they didn’t even know was possible,” he says. “Obviously we know that in the U.S.—you feed animals a good ration of feed, you can have great growth potential—and they’re starting to figure that out.”

Jorgenson says the trade mission is part of the soybean industry’s efforts to develop new markets and rely less on China.

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