If economic opportunity develops out of the additional information, managers will respond to those opportunities. The export market has already initiated component pricing on a limited scale, paying small premiums to direct higher oil and protein soybeans into specialized import markets. The export market has demonstrated a willingness to use the additional information once it was made available on a standard, easily obtained, basis. It can be predicted that the use of this information would increase if it were available farther back in the market channel. The response from domestic processors is less predictable.
Many processors privately obtain information about oil and protein contents by geographical region.
Given current contract specifications for meal, higher protein contents in soybeans may not increase total product value. Thus the full benefit of component pricing may not be obtainable until the market establishes a price schedule matched to a full range of protein contents in the meal. The market must explicitly recognize the value of meal with protein content above the specification, before processors can pay farmers for the full value of high protein soybeans. Demands by poultry feeders based on least-cost rations are occasionally being expressed in the soybean meal market now. If this trend gains momentum the meal market may drive the processing demands, and processing demand will move component pricing to the country elevators.