US soybean growers hope to boost trade with China and expand cooperation into more areas, with industry insiders noting that soybean cooperation now spans far beyond traditional uses.
The US soybean crop is projected to be a record 123 million metric tons, according to the US Department of Agriculture's July market outlook. US farmers planted 34.5 million hectares of soybeans this growing season, up 5 percent from a year earlier.
Randy Miller, a director on the board of the US Soybean Export Council, or USSEC, told a conference on Thursday that what worries him most is "the things we can't control".
"The markets, the weather, policy uncertainty — all of that just kind of piles up," he said.
Soy Connext, the annual conference hosted by USSEC, opened on Thursday in Chicago, Illinois. Roughly 400 international buyers from 67 countries are attending the gathering, including 30 Chinese buyers working in food processing, oil crushing, feed manufacturing, and soybean research.
