The Murky World of Soybean Meal Trade Analysis

Walter Cronin, White River’s President & Co-Founder, provides market commentary in his latest Market Report.

Last week I wrote a post addressing USDA economists’ curious usage of the ominous verb “deplete” to characterize impending declines in global vegetable oil ending stocks. If you missed reading it, you can find it here.

The post caused many readers to reach out to me and ask for more details on the state of the US soybean meal market and my views on how this summer’s and next year’s soybean meal market plays out, especially in light of the significant expansion in U.S. soybean processing capacity (increasing by 3.4 million metric tons during the 2024/25 September/August grain calendar year or 125 million bushels for my fellow Americans). Quite frankly, readers who sent me notes after reading my “deplete” post could not believe I had suggested the potential for a spike in meal prices this summer, especially with all the well-publicized expansion in U.S. processing capacity (that they mistakenly believe is available to operate today).

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