Competitiveness is gradually rising! Let's take a look at the "full industry chain value-added account" of domestically produced soybeans.

This year’s “Government Work Report” emphasizes the need to unwaveringly focus on grain production, with a special mention of consolidating and enhancing soybean capacity. Here, we look at how the value of a single soybean has changed to see how domestically produced soybeans are achieving a leap in value.

The festive atmosphere has not yet faded. In Heilongjiang Hailun, a major soybean producing area, farmer Ma Hongyan has already started planning to sell his harvest. Last year, his 9 hectares of soybeans not only yielded the highest in recent years but also fetched good prices.

Sitting on his heated kang bed at home, Ma Hongyan carefully calculates his “income increase” with a pen. Although many grain traders have called to offer prices, he still wants to visit the grain purchase point to check the market. After taking a sample of his soybeans, he heads straight to the purchase site.

With increased yield and income, Ma Hongyan tells reporters that, besides boosting production, choosing high-quality varieties is also key to increasing farmers’ earnings. At the grain purchase point, a protein content tester has become standard equipment. Ma Hongyan hands over his sample, and within a minute, the tester provides the result.

After visiting several purchase points, traders offered Ma Hongyan a top price of 2.45 yuan per jin. This is five cents more per jin than his previous expectations, meaning an additional 350 yuan per hectare. Satisfied, Ma Hongyan immediately decides to sell.

Currently, China’s soybean market has formed a clear segmentation: high-oil soybeans with oil content over 20%, mainly used for oil extraction and soybean meal production; high-protein soybeans with protein content generally above 40%, used as core raw materials for soy products. At the traders’ purchase points, trucks loaded with soybeans are ready to head to processing enterprises across the country. Traders say that in response to market demand changes, they have shifted from the past “mixed collection and sale” to now “precise classification.”

The careful calculations of farmers and traders’ increased earnings directly reflect the “quality and price” principle in the soybean market. In a laboratory of a seed industry company in Harbin, Heilongjiang, researchers are using molecular markers, gene editing, and whole-genome selection to combine high-protein, high-oil, and disease-resistant genes into a single seed. The researchers say breeding must actively adapt to market needs and consider the “comprehensive account.”

At the end of the industrial chain, traditional oil pressing companies are accelerating their transformation and upgrading. In a soybean oil pressing plant in Heilongjiang, experiments on protein separation are underway. The manager calculates the “benefit account” of deep processing: one ton of soybeans, after primary processing, can produce about 0.18 tons of soybean oil and 0.78 tons of soybean meal, with a total output value of about 4,100 yuan. However, choosing deep processing, the value of soy protein products alone can exceed ten thousand yuan, nearly tripling the benefits.

Consolidating and enhancing soybean capacity has also been a focus for Yu Jiaao, a national People’s Congress delegate, for many years. She believes that promoting high-quality development of domestically produced soybeans must rely on national soybean breeding centers, collaborate with universities and research institutes to tackle key issues, expand the scale of good seed breeding, and strengthen the seed source foundation.

National People’s Congress Delegate Yu Jiaao: We need to implement actions to improve soybean protein, especially establish special projects for the development of domestic soybean plant protein industry, encourage and support core technologies for deep processing such as functional modification of soybean protein, and expand application scenarios of soybean protein in medicine, food, and functional products. Let the domestic soybean industry grow bigger and stronger.

Data shows that by 2025, China’s soybean production will reach 20.91 million tons, an increase of 1.3% over the previous year; the nationwide soybean planting area will be 154 million mu, maintaining stability above 150 million mu for four consecutive years. From farmers achieving increased income through “quality and price,” to breakthroughs in breeding technology, and to the added value of refined processing products, the competitiveness of domestically produced soybeans is gradually rising in this “full industry chain value-added account.”