After an 11-day Asian trade mission, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey has a positive outlook that Iowa soybean exports to China and Taiwan will remain strong despite the current worldwide recession.

Parts of China have been hit hard by manufacturing productions shutdowns that will effect U.S. imports, but the demand for pork and chicken livestock remains constant. This is good news for Iowa.

“They’re not going to be able to produce enough grain, certainly not enough soybeans, to feed their own. They’re going to need imports,” said Northey told the Quad City Times.

“It’s going to continue to grow. It may grow at a little slower pace right now. But I think it’s going to continue to grow and I really think that within the next few years they’ll have a need to import corn as well,” the Iowa agriculture secretary said.

While in China, Northey met with feed manufacturers and soybean crushers that cannot keep up with the demand that increases 10 to 20 percent each year. Because they cannot keep up domestically, they must look to outside sources.

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