Ten Minnesota soybean farmers just completed the first leg of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council's (MSR&PC) See For Yourself mission to Chile. They are now headed to Columbia. With the goal of continually growing markets for soybeans the MSR&PC invests check-off funds overseas to improve Minnesota soybean farmers profitability. The See For Yourself program was developed a number of years ago as an opportunity for soybean farmers to see these investments first hand.

"Most of us farmers harvest our soybeans and we deliver them to a local elevator, and that's it for us," says Wheaton, Minn. farmer and See For Yourself participant Rodd Beyer. " We know they may end up on a train, headed to the pacific North West, but we don't think beyond that. This mission has allowed us to meet with our end-users and learn about the international markets and customers buying our soybeans."

In Chile MN soybean farmers visited  AgroSuper which is Chile's number one producer of pork. The company owns over 1,000 pig barns, harvests 8,000 pigs a day and provides 2,000 jobs. They also learned about aquaculture in Chile. Yes, soybean meal is also fed to fish. Chile ranks number two behind Norway in the world aquaculture market. MN soybean farmers are on their way to Colombia the third largest importer of U.S. soybean meal and the fifth largest importer of U.S soybean oil.

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