MENA Region Soybean Commodity Markets

Despite recent volatility, consumption of MENA region soy products has risen over the past 20 years. As with corn, this growth has been driven primarily by rising demand for poultry and other meat. The proportion of soybeans and soybean meal imports varies across the region, depending on each country’s domestic soybean-crushing capacity. In some countries, such as Egypt, crushing capacity remains controlled by government-favored monopolies that enjoy tariff protection from soymeal imports. In other countries, however, economic constraints have limited the expansion of crushing capacity, leaving markets open to global soymeal producers despite a declining trend in the share of U.S. soy products exported to the region.

While U.S. shipments of soybeans to the MENA region have varied like those of other crop commodities, the trend over the past 10 years has generally tracked upward with consumption. Among the MENA importers of U.S. soy are Egypt and Turkey, along with Tunisia, Morocco, and Israel. However, the U.S. share of the MENA region soy product market has steadily shrunk as price- competitive producers, such as Brazil and Argentina, have claimed a greater portion of these markets.

Soy oil, an edible byproduct of soymeal production, has witnessed similar growth in consumption over the past 20 years, primarily in Egypt and ONA. As with other soy products, however, soy oil production has witnessed little growth over the past two decades. Consequently, imports into the region have risen significantly to make up the difference, averaging about 1.8 million tons over the period 2011/13 and accounting for more than 20 percent of the world’s total soy oil imports.