Tight US soybean supplies push feed costs back to the centre of poultry pricing

Feed costs are back at the front of poultry pricing as US soybean supplies tighten

Rain-delayed harvests across the US Midwest have left soybean processors short of beans. Buyers who need soybeans immediately are paying well above futures to get them, and some crush plants have had to scale back soymeal output because they could not secure enough raw material, Reuters reported on 25 September 2026. Soymeal is the main protein input in poultry feed, which is why everyone who buys frozen chicken is watching this market.

• A record crush running on empty. USDA projects US processors will crush a record 2.78 billion bushels of soybeans this crop year, driven largely by biofuel demand — but old-crop beans are nearly exhausted and the 2026 harvest is running weeks late.
• Premiums spiked within days. Bunge's Council Bluffs, Iowa plant was paying a 65-cent premium per bushel for immediate delivery; by Thursday that had risen to 85 cents. Cargill bid $1 a bushel over CBOT November futures, a flat price of $14.17½ per bushel, for delivery to its Sioux City, Iowa crush plant — then cut the bid to 15 cents below November futures for Saturday delivery. Bunge's Decatur, Indiana plant raised its bid by 20 cents, to 25 cents over November futures.
• Soymeal futures set a contract high. CBOT October soymeal futures hit a life-of-contract high and traded at a premium to December futures for the first time in more than two years — a textbook sign of physical scarcity. Cargill's Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls and Sioux City plants posted no soymeal offers at all because they had no supply to sell.
• Europe is reporting the same pressure from the other side. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service poultry annual for the European Union (GAIN report E42026-0072, September 2026) says heatwaves and severe drought across western and central Europe in 2026 reduced feed availability and raised feed prices, lifting production costs, and expects producers to pass those increases through to the retail sector.

For importers the message is straightforward. Feed grain and oilseed costs are the largest single cost component in broiler production, and the oilseed market has turned firm again just as the northern-hemisphere buying season starts. Buying forward on frozen chicken cuts — fixing volume and price now rather than waiting for the spot market to soften — is the cheaper hedge when the cost of the birds is still rising.

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Source: Reuters, “Soybean processors offer big premiums as rain delays US harvest”, 25 September 2026 (2.78 billion bushel premium figures); USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, GAIN report E42026-0072, Poultry and Products Annual — European Union, September 2026.