Cargill, which operates Tacoma's Temco grain facility with CHS, is among the Northwest grain operators that will reap enormous financial benefits from the Chinese boom in grain demand. Soybeans rallied 45 percent this year on the Chicago Board of Trade, reaching a record $17.7125 a bushel on Aug. 30, while soybean meal in Chicago has also climbed to an all-time high. Soybean meal for January delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange jumped as much as 3 percent to 4,361 yuan ($687) a metric ton, the highest-ever price for the most-active contract.
Meat consumption in China, the world’s largest, will continue to expand even as the economy slows, sustaining demand for feeds made from corn and soybeans, according to Cargill Inc., the biggest U.S. agricultural company.
“We are looking at a mega-trend of increasing consumption of meat, milk, eggs,” Christopher Langholz, president of Cargill Animal Protein China, said in an interview, without giving specific forecasts.
Rising incomes in China, the second-largest economy, have increased demand for meat including pork, making the nation the largest buyer of soybeans, which are crushed to feed pigs and chicken. Soybeans and corn surged to records in Chicago last month as the worst U.S. drought in half a century cut supplies.
China may increase soybean imports in 2012-2013 even amid record prices, Rabobank International said in July.