USA: New processors to change North Dakota's export-oriented soybean sector

North Dakota's soybean industry is at the forefront of what could become a 50-year event in the coming years, with two new refineries scheduled to open in 2023 and 2024 to meet growing domestic biofuel production. U.S. soybean processing capacity could increase by as much as 30% over the next four years, with more than a dozen new facilities or expansions planned as part of a nationwide wave of investment in processing the main U.S. export crop, primarily to supply vegetable oil to renewable diesel producers. fuel. This will upend traditional trade flows as exports of whole soybeans to markets such as China give way to increased domestic demand and more overseas supplies of soybean meal, a product that China does not normally import. Nowhere will this shift be more dramatic than in North Dakota, the 4th largest soybean-producing state in the US, which sends about 70% of its high-protein oilseed crop to China every year. Instead, the new facilities will be able to process half of ...