By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

LOVINGTON, Ill. — New quality requirements imposed this year by China could weaken U.S. soybean competitiveness – but Illinois farmers are more than ready to meet the new conditions.

This is according to Stan Born, a soybean farmer and Illinois Soybean Assoc. (ISA) director from Lovington who also serves as a member of the U.S. Soybean Export Council. “(Chinese officials) are being more critical, or looking more closely, than what they have in the past,” he explained.

China announced that beginning Jan. 1, the nation is accepting soybeans from the United States only if the historic level of 2 percent foreign material contamination level in shipments is reduced to 1 percent. The requirement applies only to U.S. soybeans; those exported from South America, most notably Brazil, are not subject to the condition.

China cited concerns with weed seed contamination from the U.S. as the impetus for the requirement, which was negotiated by Chinese ag officials along with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This led to concern that U.S. farmers would be affected by price and demand shifts due the action.

“Foreign material could be dirt, stems, pods or whatever it is you might find in a shipment, and weed seed falls into that category,” said Born, a former Caterpillar executive who inherited and expanded his late grandfather’s farm in Moultrie County after retiring from Big Yellow.

“But as farmers, when we take our beans to elevators we are delivering 1 percent (contamination level) soybeans. Anything above 1 percent, and we are docked – it is deducted from our price, because the elevator cleans it out.

“What we export out of the country is No. 2 beans. That is because they are handled. You leave them at the elevator, but then they are going through belts and conveyors, into bins, onto trucks, rail or barge, put into bins, scooped out, put onto ships. When it is handled that many times, it creates an opportunity for the development of foreign material through the movement of the material,” he said.

Born is at a loss to explain why China is singling out U.S. growers. “It’s a hard question, and there are probably some overriding issues that are beyond simple product quality. There could be other extenuating factors. The deal produced with APHIS belongs to us; no other nations agreed to this, and the reasons behind that are probably beyond quality of shipment,” he speculated.

So, what else can growers do to ensure they are doing their part, as originators of the supply chain, to ensure that all soybeans headed for China are below the 1 percent contamination threshold? “Beans from 2017 are already in the system, but going forward it is good for us as farmers to try to address the things that we can,” Born said.

“Just making sure your combine is set correctly, that you are doing your best to provide control for the pests in your field. We also have to ensure we have the most robust and most current weed control mechanisms that are available to the industry, and that we get approval for those in China. They must be willing to accept beans with these technologies for weed control and different traits.”

As a member of the Soybean Council and ISA, he said he is dedicated to working with the U.S. government and the American Soybean Assoc. to ensure new traits and technologies gain approval from the Chinese government. “This way, we can have the best production techniques at our disposal as farmers.”

Rejected deliveries of U.S. soybean shipments to China could result in expensive logistical backups that would affect the bottom line of soybean growers as far away as Illinois, Born cautioned.

“That is why it is important that we get these things resolved, and that the whole supply chain is involved in doing everything they can to make sure that we meet our customers’ expectations and demands. That means the processors, the elevators and us as farmers. We need to take ownership and do what we can to ensure we meet the customers’ needs.

“On the flip side, we also need to have the trait approvals and approvals for the most current pest control in China. We need to advocate and push for that, so that we as farmers can have the best technology in our management toolkit,” he said.