On 3/31/21, a petition was filed on behalf of the Organic Soybean Processors of America and eight U.S. domestic processors. The information provided in this Petition demonstrates that during the investigation, the surge of organic soybean and byproduct imports entered the domestic market at prices below the costs at which U.S. soybean crushers could produce organic soybean meal and achieve a profit/positive crush margin. The goal of the complaint is to justify further investigation. According to The Jacobsen sources, several organic soybean exporters were contacted by the U.S. International Trade Commission on 3/31/21.

The complaint goes on to say that “Indian producers were able to offer these prices and capture this market share as a result of dumping and a series of subsidy programs that the Department, the Commission, and the World Trade Organization repeatedly have found to violate U.S. trade laws and multilateral trade agreements.”

The complaint discusses how organic soybean meal is used in the United States and the premiums that it can garner relatively to conventional soybean meal. The complaint concerns the crushing process and what is needed to achieve certified organic status in the United States. It lists the companies that provided the criticism and their reasoning. The paper discussed the total actual demand for OSBM in the United States increased by a CAGR of 7% per year since 2014. The industry can crush approximately 550K metric tons of organic soybean meal per year.

What is the Key Subject?

The U.S. International Trade Commission says that they consider if “there has been significant price underselling by the imported merchandise as compared with the price of domestic like products of the United States,” and also whether the effect of imports “otherwise depresses prices to a significant degree or prevents price increases, which otherwise would have occurred, to a significant degree.” The write-up says that U.S. prices of OSBM have been consistently falling in a period when the demand has been increasing. The complainers have lost significant revenue because of the imports over the 2017-2020 period. The complaint says that 376K short tons of organic soybean meal sales were lost due to the imports.

*There will be no release of the organic and non-GMO bulletin on Friday 4/2 and Monday 4/5