# Soybeans: Trading

How traders bet on the crush spread

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/trading/

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

CME's CBOT lists soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil, together called the soybean complex. The crush spread, buying beans and selling meal and oil, is a popular way to trade the processing margin (Geman, pdf p. 159). Dalian Commodity Exchange lists very liquid soybean, meal and oil contracts. Brazilian beans are sold at premiums over CBOT at Santos or Paranaguá. The ABCD houses and COFCO handle much of the physical trade. Cargill built crush plants in the US, Brazil and Europe so it could ship beans or products from wherever paid best (Morgan, pdf p. 326).

#### Where it is bought (buyers)

- Chinese state and private crushers (Sinograin, COFCO, private crushers in Shandong and Guangdong) buy cargoes from Brazil and the US
- EU, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern feed compounders buy soybean meal, mostly from Argentina and Brazil
- Indian refiners (AWL Agri Business, Patanjali Foods and others) buy crude soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil and Russia, priced off CBOT and Argentine FOB
- Feed mills in Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal and France buy Indian non-GM soymeal

#### Where it is sold (sellers)

- Brazilian, US, Argentine and Paraguayan farmers sell to elevators and exporters
- Global merchants export from Santos, Paranagua, Itaqui (Brazil), US Gulf and Pacific Northwest, and Rosario (Argentina)
- Indian crushers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra export meal through Kandla, Mundra and land routes to Nepal and Bangladesh

#### Exchanges and benchmarks

| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **CBOT (CME Group)** | Soybeans, Soybean Meal and Soybean Oil futures (US cents/bu, $/short ton, cents/lb) | global benchmark; board crush spread trades as a package |
| **Dalian Commodity Exchange** | No.1 (non-GM) and No.2 soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil | most liquid meal futures in the world; tracks Chinese crush margins |
| **B3 (Brazil)** | Soybean futures (FOB Santos basis) | smaller, used for local hedging |
| **NCDEX (India)** | Soybean and refined soy oil futures | suspended by SEBI since 20 December 2021; the ban on seven agri contracts (incl. soybean and derivatives, crude palm oil, mustard) was extended to 31 March 2027 (The Week/PTI, 27 March 2026); physical prices set in mandis (Indore, Latur) |

#### Contract types

- FOB cargoes priced as CBOT futures plus a port basis (premium) for Brazil, US Gulf and Argentina
- CFR China cargoes bought months ahead, with the futures leg priced later
- Domestic flat-price or basis contracts between farmers and elevators
- Meal and oil sold on Argentine FOB up-river premiums over CBOT
- Indian MSP procurement (Price Support Scheme) when mandi prices fall below MSP

#### Top trading houses

- Cargill
- ADM
- Bunge (with Viterra)
- Louis Dreyfus Company
- COFCO International
- Wilmar
- Amaggi

#### How prices are discovered

- CBOT settlement prices and the board crush
- Port basis and FOB premiums assessed by Fastmarkets (Agricensus), S&P Global Commodity Insights and Argus
- Dalian futures for Chinese meal and oil
- SOPA and mandi prices (Indore) for India

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/cycles/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/soybeans/links/index.md)