Soy bring in US$2 billion to Ohio

Robust soy exports, mostly to China, have benefited US state, Ohio's agricultural economy, during the recent recession.

Soy, the state's top agricultural export, generated more than US$2 billion in economic activity last year in Ohio, said Kirk Merritt, executive director of the Ohio Soybean Council. Nationwide, the 2008-09 harvest year was the largest on record for whole soy exports, reaching 1.24 billion bushels, up 10% from a year earlier. More than half of US soy is exported, but Ohio-specific figures are not available.

''We import very little,'' Merritt said. ''The fact that many billions worth of soy have been exported out of the US goes almost all into the trade surplus, helping to offset the deficit.''

The strong exporting environment probably added at least 20 cents to 25 cents per bushel of the most recent harvest of Ohio soy, said Matt Roberts, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University. The nation exported about 25 % more soys than had been expected last summer, he said.

Still, Roberts said, consumers should see only negligibly higher prices for items such as vegetable oil and meat. Soy is an important feed source for the livestock industry.

While such growth in the agriculture sector likely will not translate into more on-farm jobs, it likely will mean more consumer spending on everything from tractors to new construction, Roberts said.

China, the largest export market for whole soy, accounted for about 23%, or 686 million bushels, of all US soy exports, a 40% increase from last year. Mexico is the second-largest export market for whole soy (113 million bushels), followed by Japan (88 million bushels).

While weather has a significant effect on the size of the harvest, local farmers are tending to produce more soy on fewer acres. Farmers in 2009 harvested 42.2 million bushels of soy off 816,600 acres in 11 local counties (Montgomery, Warren, Greene, Miami, Preble, Darke, Mercer, Shelby, Champaign, Clark and Butler), according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That was up from 31.6 million bushels in 2008, and was a record yield per acre for the region.