From Tennessee fields to Bangladesh: How US soy builds premium value
The beans powering Bangladesh’s poultry, livestock and aquaculture sectors pass through an integrated system of research, farming, testing, storage and transport.
Highlights:
- Bangladesh bought 1.13 million tonnes of US soybeans in 2025-26
- Five Bangladeshi companies committed $1.25 billion to US soy
- US Soy promotes reliability, quality, sustainability and traceability alongside price
- Precision farming helps boost productivity while reducing unnecessary inputs
- US researchers develop soy varieties resistant to flooding, drought and disease
- Bangladesh could adapt US lessons in research, technology and sustainable farming
Standing in a soybean field in Finley, Tennessee, Stefan Maupin sees far more than a crop ready for harvest. Her family has farmed the land for four generations, and she now manages nearly 1,000 acres of soybeans.
Yet the journey of those beans extends far beyond this farm.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
From seed selection and breeding to precision farming, research, quality testing, storage and transportation, every stage is part of an integrated system designed to deliver a consistent product to buyers around the world.
Some of those soybeans may eventually travel thousands of kilometres to Bangladesh, where they are crushed into soybean oil and meal, with the meal becoming a key protein ingredient for poultry, livestock and aquaculture feed.
That farm-to-global-market journey was among the key lessons from a recent US Soybean Export Council (USSEC)-organised visit to soybean farms, research centres and supply-chain facilities in Tennessee, Arkansas and Illinois.
The visit, organised around Soy Connext 2026 in Chicago, offered a look beyond conference rooms into how the US soybean industry combines research, genetics, technology, farming, logistics and sustainability to build value around what is otherwise a global commodity.
Increasingly, the US industry is trying to convince buyers that the value of American soybeans cannot be measured by price alone.
For Bangladesh, the lessons are particularly relevant as the US rapidly expands its role as the country's leading soybean supplier.
USSEC said Bangladesh purchased 1.13 million tonnes of US soybeans in the marketing year 2025-26 through 5 February 2026. In November 2025, five major Bangladeshi companies also committed to buying US soybeans and soybean meal worth $1.25 billion over 12 months.
The farm is the beginning of a global chain
At Maupin's Tennessee farm, technology is embedded in almost every stage of production.
Modern machinery handles planting, crop management and harvesting across hundreds of acres, while data and field-level monitoring help farmers make decisions about crop performance and quality.
Maupin said technology is helping farmers maintain both quality and sustainability.
The system does not end when the crop leaves the field. Soybeans are tested, stored and transported through an extensive network designed to preserve quality until they reach domestic processors or international customers.
That network is one of the US industry's biggest competitive advantages. The Mississippi River provides a major artery for moving agricultural commodities from the country's interior to export terminals. Soybeans can travel from farms and grain elevators through inland waterways before being loaded for international markets.
For global buyers, the value of US Soy therefore begins not only with the bean itself but with the ability to deliver it consistently.
Todd Main, director of market development at USSEC, said reliability is one of the fundamental advantages of US Soy.
"If customers need soybeans, we can deliver them any time of the year," he said, pointing to the country's extensive transportation network linking farms, elevators, railways, waterways, export terminals and international shipping routes.
For feed manufacturers, reliability can be economically important. A disruption in soybean supplies can affect feed production, poultry prices and aquaculture operations.
USSEC therefore increasingly positions US Soy around reliability, nutritional value, sustainability and traceability, alongside price.
The farmer is part of the research system
The Illinois visit provided another perspective on how farmers create value.
Bryan Siebers, chairman of Illinois Soybean Association District 7 and a multi-generation soybean farmer, described farming as a responsibility passed from one generation to the next.
His family pays close attention to machinery cleaning, varietal purity, soil health and crop management. Cover crops are used to support soil health, while crop-protection decisions are carefully managed.
For Siebers, sustainability is not simply a certification or marketing exercise. It is about ensuring that the next generation inherits productive farmland.
He also highlighted a growing challenge for US agriculture: productive farmland is gradually being converted into warehouses, industrial facilities, roads and other infrastructure.
At the same time, farmers are developing closer relationships with international buyers through identity-preserved systems.
Specialty or non-GMO soybeans can be kept separate from other varieties from harvest through storage and transportation, allowing buyers to trace the product more closely to its origin.That is changing the traditional commodity relationship.
Instead of an anonymous shipment entering a global trading system, farmers can increasingly know where their soybeans are going and what type of customer is buying them.
For international food and feed companies, traceability can provide greater confidence over origin, handling and quality.
In Arkansas, the farm is also a seed laboratory
The integration of farming and research is particularly visible at Eagle Seed, a family-owned seed company in Weiner, Arkansas.
Established in 1975 and led by farmer and seedsman Brad Doyle, Eagle Seed combines commercial farming with its own breeding and seed-development programme.
The company develops and tests soybean varieties for higher yields, stress tolerance, biomass and other characteristics, working with more than 30 universities and industry organisations.
Rather than simply purchasing seed developed elsewhere, the company participates directly in developing and testing new genetics.
That creates another layer of value for American agriculture.
A farmer can earn not only from the crop harvested from the field but also from the development, multiplication and commercialisation of superior seed varieties.
The model shows how genetics has become an economic asset in modern US agriculture. Better genetics can mean higher yields, stronger resilience and greater value from every acre, while successful breeding can create an additional business around seed development.
Technology is changing the economics of farming
The US farms visited during the trip showed that mechanisation is only one part of the technology story.
Farmers increasingly use data to determine when to plant, how much seed to use, where to apply crop nutrients and how to manage pests and diseases.
Precision technology allows farmers to make decisions at a much more detailed level than was possible in previous generations.
This is important as input costs rise and environmental pressure increases.
The goal is not necessarily to use more fertiliser, pesticides or water, but to use them more efficiently.
That creates a direct connection between profitability and sustainability. If farmers can produce more from the same land while reducing unnecessary inputs, both their margins and environmental performance can improve.
Sustainability becomes part of the product
Sustainability was a recurring theme throughout the farm and research visits. USSEC increasingly presents sustainability not simply as an environmental obligation but as part of the commercial value of US Soy.
The organisation's Soy Sustainability Assurance Protocol allows international buyers to verify that US Soy has been produced under defined sustainability criteria.
USSEC reported that 71% of US Soy exports in 2025 were shipped with SSAP certification.
For global food companies, sustainability credentials are becoming increasingly important as consumers and businesses demand greater transparency about agricultural supply chains.
The US soybean industry is therefore trying to build a product that can compete on several dimensions simultaneously: quality, nutritional performance, reliability, sustainability and traceability.
The next soybean is being developed in laboratories
Perhaps the most important lesson from the US soybean industry is that productivity gains are being pursued not only in fields but also in research laboratories and experimental plots.
Researchers across Tennessee, Arkansas and Illinois are working to develop soybean varieties that can produce higher yields while maintaining nutritional quality and tolerating drought, flooding, pests and diseases.
At the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, researchers are using breeding and advanced genetic tools to develop varieties adapted to local conditions.
Timothy N. Burcham, director of the university's Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center, said the programme produces around 200 soybean crosses a year, generating roughly 20,000 genetic combinations for evaluation.
The research includes flood tolerance, a particularly important area as farmers face increasingly unpredictable weather.
One variety, R19C-1035, averaged 66.1 bushels per acre between 2020 and 2025 and demonstrated a significant yield advantage over check varieties under flooding conditions, according to research presented during the visit.
The work illustrates how modern soybean breeding is moving beyond simply maximising yield.
At Agricenter International in Memphis, the connection between research and commercial agriculture becomes even clearer.
The facility has a 1,000-acre research farm, including around 600 acres of research land, and conducts more than 250 trials annually for more than 80 companies.
The trials cover soybean varieties, irrigation, crop nutrition, biostimulants, crop protection and other agricultural technologies.
Ashley Barth, associate director of Agricenter International, said the US soybean sector is combining traditional breeding and field trials with genomics and precision technologies to improve productivity and sustainability.
The objective, she said, is not simply to produce more soybeans, but to develop varieties that deliver better nutritional characteristics, withstand climate and disease pressures, use resources more efficiently and ultimately improve farm profitability.
Agricenter effectively acts as a bridge between researchers, technology companies and farmers.
New varieties and technologies can be tested under real Mid-South growing conditions before farmers adopt them commercially. That model helps shorten the distance between scientific research and practical farming.
Bangladesh: more than a soybean market
Bangladesh is already a major destination for US Soy, but the opportunity extends beyond imports.
The country's poultry, livestock and aquaculture sectors are expanding, creating sustained demand for soybean meal as a major protein source in feed.
USSEC's $1.25 billion purchase commitment with Bangladeshi companies last year underlined the scale of the market. Meghna Group of Industries, City Group, Delta Agrofood Industries, Mahbub Group and KGS Group were among the companies involved.
Md Mohammad Sameer Haque, director of Delta Agro Industries, was among the Bangladeshi business representatives who visited US farms and research facilities.
"The quality of US soy is better than others. Their research and sustainability practices are exceptional," he said.
Mosaraff Hossain, chairman of Asta Feed Mills, said Bangladesh should similarly look beyond simply importing soybeans and focus on learning from the systems and technologies that make the US soybean industry competitive.
"The US experience shows how research, farming, technology, logistics, sustainability and business can work together to build a globally competitive agricultural value chain," he said.
For Bangladesh, he said, the priority should be to adapt those lessons to local conditions and strengthen the ecosystem around seed development, agricultural research, feed production, aquaculture and sustainable farming.
