Soybeans
The protein meal and vegetable oil crop anchoring US and South American farmland.
Overview
Crushing a bean splits it into meal, the majority of value feeding pigs and poultry, and oil for food, fuel, and chemicals. Brazil is the top producer and exporter, the US second, Argentina the crusher, and China imports over 60 percent of world trade. Chicago trades beans, meal, and oil, and the crush spread ties them together. Chinese buying shaped US exports until the 2018 trade war rerouted flows, and La Nina dryness in Brazil and Argentina marks price years. Acreage competition with corn sets US planting each spring, and South American harvests fill the world pipeline from March onward.
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