**2. Soybean production and consumption**

Soybean (*Glycine max,* L) is an annual crop that belongs to the Fabaceae or Leguminosae family. It originated from East Asia, but now grown over a wide geographical area worldwide with United States of America, Brazil and Argentina being the leading producers (Table 1). It is used primarily for production of vegetable oil and oilseed meal for animal feeding. The surge in the use of soybean meal in feeding animal as replacement protein source for animal protein feeds has been the main driving force in soybean production. Table 1 shows the major soybean producing countries and their relative supplies. Generally, there has been an increase of supply with a slight depression in most producing countries between 2006 and 2008 cropping seasons. The US and China tend to consume virtually what they produce, while Argentina and Brazil are major exporters with exports largely to the EU (Table 2).


Source: FAS/USDA (2009)

Table 1. World soybean supply (million tonnes) and distribution.


Source: FAS/USDA (2009)

Table 2. World soybean meal production and consumption outlooks for 2010/11 in million tonnes.
