China failed to hit 2025 soybean meal dependence target. US deal makes it harder

Last year, the proportion of soybean meal in domestically produced feed stood at 13.4 per cent, unchanged from the previous year, according to data released by the China Feed Industry Association (CFIA) last week.

This indicates that the goal set by agricultural authorities three years ago – reducing soybean meal usage in feed from 14.5 per cent in 2022 to below 13 per cent by 2025 – remains unmet, adding pressure to a longer-term target of lowering the ratio to 10 per cent by 2030.

Despite efforts to find other protein sources to replace soybean meal since 2023, newly developed substitutions – mainly biosynthetic amino acids – have yet to be utilised at large scale, thereby making limited impact on China’s growing demand for soybeans, Wang Wenshen, an analyst from bulk commodity consulting service provider Sublime China Information, said.

“It’s meaningful for cutting import reliance and safeguarding national food security, but in practice, the new technologies are still too costly,” he said.