By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

CLAYPOOL, Ind. — A delegation of Chinese soybean buyers liked what they saw during last week’s one-day whirlwind tour of Indiana, part of a 10-day visit with soy industry, government officials and soybean producers in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Washington, D.C., that was expected to culminate in St. Louis, Mo., with the signing of contracts for more than $2 billion worth of U.S. soybeans.
Their Hoosier visit started at Louis Dreyfus, a $150 million operation that opened last year near Claypool, Ind. Hailed as the world’s largest biodiesel plant, the firm processes soybeans into biodiesel fuel and livestock feed, currently processing about 180,000 gallons of biodiesel a day, enough to fill six or seven rail cars. It is capable of producing 100 million gallons a year.
Both products interested the visitors. Their country remains the top export market for U.S. soybeans - a market so large Megan Kuhn, Indiana Soybean Alliance Director of Communications and Marketing, estimates that one in every six rows of soybeans grown last year in the United States went to China.
It’s a market that continues to grow - in the 2006-2007  marketing year, 420 million bushels of U.S. beans went to China; for this year’s marketing year, which ends in August 2008, that
number is expected to increase to 436 million bushels.
Phillip W. Laney, China country director of the American Soybean Assoc., said most of the soybeans used in China go toward animal feed, adding that the Chinese government, concerned about feeding its enormous population, prohibits biofuels manufactured from food and feed sources.
While China has grown soybeans for at least 5,000 years—the American soybean originated from those used to provide ballast on Yankee clipper ships sailing from Chinese ports to America as early as 1804 - China does not allow its farmers to grow genetically modified beans. However, it does not ban their importation for animal feed.
Visitors at the Dreyfus plant listened intently as interpreters conveyed their questions to Doug Lopshire, the plant’s general manager, and commercial manager Jeremy Mullins.
Lopshire handed out samples showing how soybeans looked when cracked open and the hulls were removed so the soybean oil, a key ingredient of biodiesel, can be extracted.
Although China does not manufacture biodiesel, its soybean oil consumption has increased by 800 percent since 1900 and is expected to reach 10.09 million tons in 2010-11.
A decade ago, China was an export competitor to U.S. farmers, but times have changed.
Its soybean meal consumption has increased by 2,800 percent since 1990, but its soybean production has increased by only 47 percent in the same time period, according to the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
In addition, China’s pork, broiler, aquaculture and fluid milk production have soared. The U.S. market share of total Chinese imports is now approximately 40 percent while South America also continues to be a leading exporter.
Moving from Claypool to Atlanta, Ind., home of Beck’s Hybrids, the group spent an hour and a half looking over the family-owned operation. Vice president Scott Beck said the visitors divided their time between the company’s six greenhouses, its research and development center where various biotechnology trait introgressions are conducted and the chemical and fertilizer building. Leading the tours were Jim Riggs, Kevin Colbert, Toby Ripberger, Eric Hasler and Denny Cob.
“We wanted them to see how our operation produces both traited and non-GMO seed products for the Midwest,” Beck said. “They were intrigued.
Beck’s Hybrids serves farmers throughout Indiana and selected counties in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. According to a recent media survey, the firm, with 165 full-time employees, is the nation’s sixth largest seed company and the only one of the top six that is family owned, making it the largest family-owned U.S. retail seed company.
The delegation wound up its visit to Indiana with a stop at Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences before going to Washington, D.C. to meet with USDA Secretary Ed Schafer. After a weekend in New York City, they were expected to travel to St. Louis on June 16 for the signing ceremony.
The delegation’s Indiana visit was hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance with assistance from the U.S. Soybean Export Council, the American Soybean Assoc., Louis Dreyfus, Beck’s Hybrids and Dow AgroSciences.
Kuhn said, “Bringing in groups like this and developing relationships with buyers from China and other countries helps build markets for our soybeans.”