Soybean farmers invest in new Port Houston export facility

[Photo: Joe Murphy/United Soybean Board.]

With tariff troubles hitting the Chinese market and Mississippi River water levels a continued challenge, America’s soybean farmers are keeping all their options open. As part of that, Soybean farmer leaders were in Houston Sept. 24 to present a ceremonial check in the amount of $275,000 to The Andersons Inc. for its expansion project at the Port of Houston. Once completed in the first quarter of 2026, the expansion will enable the export of soybean meal from the facility.

By investing in the Port Houston, project, soybean farmer leaders are addressing several major priorities of the soybean industry:

Increasing soybean meal export capacity: One of the significant developments in the U.S. soybean industry continues to be the investment in processing facilities in order to produce more soybean oil for renewable fuels. The additional production of soybean oil will result in an additional production of soybean meal. While much of this additional soybean meal will be consumed by the domestic livestock industry, it is increasingly essential to invest in additional export capacity to connect with international markets.ncreasing resilience of the supply chain: Given the continued challenges the soybean industry has experienced with low water conditions on the Mississippi River, notes the Soy Transportation Coalition, it is important to promote diversity of the supply chain by “spreading the eggs across more baskets.”

The soybean meal that will be shipped to the facility at the Port of Houston will be transported via BNSF Railway or Union Pacific Railroad. It will not utilize the inland waterway system.

Diversifying international markets: Given the significant challenges confronting soybean exports due to the curtailment of the Chinese market, it is imperative to pursue “base hit” marketing opportunities for soybean meal and soybeans. The identified markets for the Houston export terminal are: Middle East/North Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia.

In presenting the ceremonial check to officials with The Andersons Inc,, Mike Koehne, a farmer from Greensburg, Ind, and chairman of the Soy Transportation Coalition, explained, “As stewards of the funding through the soybean checkoff program, my fellow soybean farmers and I are constantly exploring any opportunity to increase the profitability of our industry. The Andersons’ soybean meal and grain export facility at the Port of Houston is an excellent example of an investment that will help accomplish many of our major priorities. Most soybean farmers in the U.S. are located hundreds of miles or more from our coastal regions. This geographic distance is a challenge we must overcome if we are to compete in the international marketplace. We would like to express our appreciation to The Andersons and the Port of Houston for investing in the supply chain that allows farmers like me to be successful.”

With storage capacity of 6.3 million bushels, the Houston facility supports the export of more than two million tonnes of grain annually and will include up to 22,000 tonnes for storing soybean meal for export.

Additional upgrades will include a new conveyance system to seamlessly transport goods from storage to the ship loaders, as well as a new ship loading tower to increase the efficiency and speed of loading.

The Andersons projects that the primary states that will feed the soybean meal to their facility will be: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. It is possible other states will feed into the facility as well given the expansion of soybean processing throughout the country.

Because the facility at the Port of Houston will result in greater resiliency of both international marketing and the supply chain, the following soybean farmer organizations contributed a total of $275,000 toward the project:

• United Soybean Board
• Soy Transportation Coalition
• Iowa Soybean Association
• Kansas Soybean Commission
• Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council
• Nebraska Soybean Board

The funding will be used for research, analysis, pre-engineering, and design expenses associated with the facility expansion at the Port of Houston. The Andersons, the owner of the facility, will assume the costs of the actual construction of the project.

The ceremonial $275,000 check was presented to The Andersons by a group of soybean farmer leaders at a luncheon at Port Houston’s headquarters. The group also received a tour of the export terminal and an update on the expansion project.

“We sincerely“We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to work with soybean farmers on this important investment,” said Matt Dvorak, Houston business manager at The Andersons. “As domestic soybean crush increases, we are identifying new opportunities for the export of soybean meal via our Houston facility. We look forward to working with the Soy Transportation Coalition and the broader soybean farmer community on this project, which will help connect U.S. soybean meal with international customers.”