Soyabean producers in the USA have announced that they will help fund the expansion of a Pacific Northwest export terminal, Freight Waves reported.
The Iowa Soybean Association, Kansas Soybean Commission, Nebraska Soybean Board, North Dakota Soybean Council, South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the Soy Transportation Coalition say they will collectively provide US$900,000 towards pre-engineering, design and site development costs for AG Processing’s terminal expansion and redevelopment at the Port of Grays Harbour in Aberdeen, Washington, according to the 1 September report.
Nebraska-based co-operative AG Processing (AGP), that owns and operates 10 soyabean processing facilities in the midwest, planned to expand the terminal’s export capacity from 3M tonnes to 6M tonnes, Freight Waves wrote.
AGP had announced its plans to expand the facility in March, the report said, and the project included the construction of additional storage at Terminal 2 and a new ship loader at Terminal 4. The project was due to be operational in 2025.
Alongside the expansion, the Port of Grays Harbour had said it would expand rail infrastructure within the port complex to accommodate the increased volume, Freight Waves wrote.
“With more future soyabean processing in this country, farmers are very interested in opportunities to assist with the increased need for soyabean meal export capacity,” Jonathan Miller, chairman of the Soy Transportation Coalition and a Kentucky soyabean farmer, was quoted as saying in a news release. “The more we can export a higher value product like soyabean meal, farmers will benefit.”
US soyabean meal exports totalled 12M tonnes in 2021 and had an export value of US$5.58bn last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the top five soyabean meal markets for the USA are Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and the Philippines.
