South Dakota farmers and agribusinesses hosted a trade team of soybean meal buyers from Southeast Asia over the weekend. Jeff Thompson with the South Dakota Soybean Association says a large share of South Dakota soybeans go to markets in that region through the Pacific Northwest and so it was an important trade mission.

One of the tour stops was the South Dakota Soybean Processing Plant in Volga. CEO Tom Kersting says a large percentage of the meal that is processed at the plant goes to export markets and so they always welcome international buyers.

In fact, the Philippines is the top buyer of U.S. and South Dakota soybean meal and Kersting says an on-going relationship is needed to retain that market.

The team also got to see a modern U.S. pork production system at the SDSU Swine Unit. Extension Swine Specialist Bob Thaler says they hope this will lead to even more U.S. soybean meal sales down the road.

Philippine Soybean Meal buyer Charlie Hsieh with Atlas Nutrition says they’re repeat buyers of U.S. product because of the high quality and the logistics, which keep the price down.

The trade team learned how Soy Protein Concentrate is being used in aquaculture diets at Prairie AquaTech in Brookings. They also looked at the quality of this year’s soybean crop at farms in Lennox and Elk Point.