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Investment in port expansion will help improve soybean meal export efficiency
Soybean farmers are investing more than $1 million to expand export opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.
United Soybean Board chairman Steve Reinhard, an Ohio farmer, says the expansion of the Port of Grays Harbor will help Ag Processing (AGP) more than double its soybean meal exports. “Taking that soybean meal, loading it on a train in the Midwest, immediately getting it out to the port,” he says. “Then it will get unloaded onto a ship and then across the Pacific Ocean there to our Asian destinations.”
He tells Brownfield the investment provides long-term certainty for soybean farmers. “It has just been a huge advantage for us to be able to take partnership with those different organizations and maintain that competitive advantage,” he says.
The expansion was announced in 2022 and is expected to be operational in late 2025 to early 2026. The investments will allow the port to efficiently handle the increased volume of soybean meal while mitigating the impact of surface traffic on the local community.
In addition to the United Soybean Board, the Soy Transportation Coalition, the Iowa Soybean Association, the Kansas Soybean Commission, the Nebraska Soybean Board, the North Dakota Soybean Council, and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council contributed to the $1.3 million for the project.
