USSEC recently met individually with feed mills and integrators in Korea’s Major Feedmill Group (MFG).  MFG is one of four purchasing groups for feed ingredients of the Korea Feed Association (KFA) and consists of 15 feed mills and integrators located around the ports of Pyongtaek and Kunsan.  In January of this year, MFG took delivery of 58,000 metric tons (MT) of U.S. soybean meal (SBM).  Companies contacted by USSEC were Nanong Co., Ltd.; Cherry Feed Co., Ltd.; Cargill Agri Purina Co., Ltd. (CAP); and Woosung Feed Co., Ltd.  Nanong and Cherry Feed are broiler integrators, while CAP and Woosung are leading MFG companies.

The objective of the meetings was to encourage feed mills and integrators to analyze the amino acid content in SBM to compare U.S. soybean meal with SBM from other origins.  A secondary objective was to ask MFG feed mills to accept the preference broiler integrators for U.S. SBM when purchasing tenders.  USSEC staff shared amino acid data analyzed by KFA’s lab with the feed mills and integrators on every vessel load of imported SBM in 2013.  Three cargoes of U.S. soybean meal contained 22.13-22.31% essential amino acid including 2.88-2.91% Lys and 0.62-0.66% Met while two cargoes of Brazilian soybean meal contained 21.87-22.31% essential amino acid including 2.85-2.86% Lys and 0.59-0.63% Met.