The protein market has been remarkably quiet this week after last week’s pre-holiday bump. Most buyers and sellers did two weeks of business last week and are spending this week dealing with a holiday shortened delivery window. Soybean meal prices are up 7 percent over the last two weeks for the CME October contract and South American prices are up 8 percent over the last four weeks. The higher prices in the bean meal market add risk for higher prices in the MBM markets in the near term, both in the domestic and international market.

Domestic supply remains heavy, but the increased price in both the US and SAM soybean meal markets combined with tight supplies out of the Australian and New Zealand markets…