Step 3 – Consistency Your Customers Can See: How Soybean Meal Quality Translates to Premium Bagged Feed Products

By Thomas D’Alfonso, Ph.D., Worldwide Animal Nutrition Focus Area Director, U.S. Soybean Export Council 

For commercial feed manufacturers serving backyard and small-scale producers, consistency isn’t just a technical specification; it’s what customers see when they open the bag. Inconsistent ingredients mean inconsistent products, and inconsistent products erode the trust your business depends on. 

What Your Customers Actually Evaluate 

“They open the bag, take out some product, smell it, look at it,” describes Glen Eric Ibañez, Nutritionist and Division Vice President at UNAHCO in the Philippines. His company, celebrating 60 years in business, produces bagged feed sold through agricultural stores to customers who evaluate feed quality in deeply personal ways. 

“Some farms even have names for their biggest animals,” Ibañez shares. “They know them.” 

This creates a different quality standard compared to integrated operations. “I see that integrated farms don’t care how the feed smells, they don’t care how it looks, so long as the animal performs. For over-the-counter feed customers like mine, they really smell it, and do a lot of things. They’ll even say, ‘Hey, this is darker than it used to be if it is different than the last bagged feed they purchased.'” 

Why Consistency Comes First 

When asked what he expects from soybean meal suppliers, Ibañez is direct: “One thing that we really look for is consistency. When you say this is what you’re going to get from us and when we check it, that’s what we got.” 

His experience with soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy has been positive: “So far U.S. Soy has been very consistent — just from the lab analysis, the way that it’s sourced, the way it looks, and the protein digestibility.” 

That consistency allows his formulation team to work confidently, knowing that the ingredients they specify will perform as expected batch after batch. “We did put a premium or more trust on U.S. Soy, just the way that the product is more uniform,” Ibañez notes. 

The Support Behind the Product 

Beyond the physical quality, Ibañez values the technical support that accompanies U.S. Soy. “USSEC and its members support the soy that you bring to our country with a lot of technical people, a lot of studies behind it,” he shares. This technical support gives UNAHCO greater confidence when formulating feed with soybean meal derived from U.S. Soy.  

His company has invested in near-infrared (NIR) capabilities to analyze the quality of incoming ingredients. “We also adapt to newer technologies. We strengthen our NIR capabilities so that we can drill down to the finer details of the nutrition,” he says. “And that’s what really matters to the animal.” 

Contracts and Trust 

“Contracts look good on paper, but you need the things behind that contract that make you trust that product,” Ibañez emphasizes. “We bring in a product that’s coming from far away, several months in coming, and we want to know that we can trust that product once we have it — no second-guessing.” 

The services provided by quality control partners matter to end users. “That support that comes with the product — that’s part of the trust that’s built into the product,” Ibañez notes. 

A 60-Year Track Record 

UNAHCO’s success reflects the importance of consistent quality. The company exports fighting chicken feed to Vietnam, Malaysia, Guam, and other markets building on a brand reputation that depends on consistent performance. 

“We’ve used all soy from all sorts of origins including Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, and Argentine,” Ibañez shares. “We put our trust in U.S. soybean meal above the other soybean meals out there in the market.” 

Learn more about how U.S. Soy farmers and supply chain partners create and maintain consistency across the supply chain here.  

What’s Nourishing Your Business? 

Partially funded by the Soy Checkoff