U.S. Soybean Export Council retained

U.S. Soybean Export Council retained    The United Soybean Board's directors voted Wednesday during a meeting in Birmingham, Ala., to retain the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
   The American Soybean Association (ASA), who along with the United Soybean Board (USB), formed the export council in October 2005 to implement an international marketing program, praised the decision.
   'ASA believes the involvement through USSEC of all key players within the U.S. soy industry — USB, ASA, exporters and allied industry representatives — is an important tool for leveraging of all resources to expand U.S. soy exports,' said Rob Joslin, ASA president, in a statement.
   The export council's activities to expand international markets for U.S. soybeans and products are made possible through ASA's investment of cost-share funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), support from cooperating industry, and by producer checkoff dollars invested by USB and various state soybean councils.
   'U.S. soy exports would not be setting new records almost every year if it hadn't been for the trade policy initiatives and market access responses undertaken by ASA coupled with checkoff and FAS-funded international marketing efforts,' Joslin said.
   St. Louis-based ASA was recently notified by USDA that it will receive about $12 million in new FAS funding for soy export promotion activities in fiscal year 2010. This includes more than $5.1 million from the Market Access Program, and more than $6.8 million from the Foreign Market Development Program, which was the highest amount allocated to any FMD program participant.
   The export council has offices and staff in Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, China, India, the Netherlands and Turkey.
   According to the ASA, more than half the value of the U.S. soybean crop was exported last year when exports hit a record level of 35 million metric tons with a value of $14 billion, plus soybean meal exports of nearly $3 billion, and soybean oil exports of about $900 million.