USSEC recently promoted the feeding value of U.S. soybean meal (SBM) to the top three broiler integrators in Korea.  USSEC staff visited Harim Co., Ltd., Dongwoo Co., Ltd. and Cherrybro Co., Ltd. from May 28-29 and met their staff involved in the decision-making chain of SBM purchasing.  USSEC scheduled these meetings to remind purchasers of the importance of evaluating SBM on digestible amino acid and to maintain the integrators’ interest in repeat purchasing of U.S. SBM.  USSEC shared data on amino acid content in imported SBM as analyzed by Korea Feed Association (KFA) and emphasized the economic benefits of feeding U.S. SBM to broilers.  According to KFA’s analysis since 2013, content of total amino acid, essential amino acid, Lysine, Methionine+Cystine, and Threonine of U.S. SBM vs. Brazilian SBM was 44.50 vs. 43.39%, 20.11 vs. 19.68%, 2.90 vs. 2.81%, 1.31 vs. 1.22% and 1.81 vs. 1.79%, respectively.
The integrators have had some difficulty in procuring U.S. SBM through group buying of the Major Feed mill Group (MFG), a buying group to which the integrators belong.  This difficulty has resulted from MFG’s tendency to choose cheaper South American SBM.  USSEC staff suggested that the integrators consider combined shipping of U.S. SBM and U.S. corn outside MFG’s group buying.  These three broiler integrators consumed 132 thousand metric ton (TMT) of imported SBM and 406 TMT of imported corn last year.