Oilseed Processing

NOPA member processing facilities play a critical role in the oilseed industry value chain by connecting upstream agricultural producers with downstream consumers.

Decisions into which market a grower should sell his crop are complex and generally determined by location, the size of the operation and the prices being paid by each market outlet. For example, U.S. soybean growers generally sell their crops to elevators, soybean processors, food processors or directly to the export market. Additionally, bean exports may be transported through elevators as beans or sent to processing plants to become meal and oil before being moved by rail, truck or barge to export grain terminals located in the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast. Most soybean processing plants are designed and maintained to operate 24/7 utilizing three shifts for approximately 345 days a year.

NOPA members process 95 percent of all soybeans in the U.S

Our 15 members operate a total of 62 soybean & 5 softseed solvent extraction plants across 21 states. NOPA members produce meal and oil used in human food, animal feed, fuel and for industrial applications. Collectively, NOPA members process 95 percent of all soybeans in the U.S. which accounts for approximately 2 billion bushels annually.

Click here to learn how NOPA members process oilseeds.

NOPA members provide value-added soybean products to essential agricultural and industrial markets.

Soybean meal is a high protein vegetable product used by animal feed millers, the soy protein industry, and increasingly, by consumer goods manufacturers as well as in industrial applications. 

Soybean oil, the other processing by-product, is a vegetable oil used in cooking, biodiesel production and making of biodegradable plastics and adhesives. 

Click here to learn about all the different ways the global supply chain uses soybeans.

Many NOPA members have co-located processing plants and refineries. This allows them to sell refined oil products directly to food processors and customers for frying and baking, as well as crude oil to biofuel refiners and industrial manufacturers.

NOPA facilitates coordinated partnerships across the oilseed processing value chain.

NOPA works with domestic growers, consumer-goods companies, and biodiesel distributors as well as countless industry suppliers to promote efficiencies in our collective engagement and promote the oilseed processing industry’s interests. Continual alignment between members and with the various industry segments on federal regulatory, legislative and trade issues is key to the industry’s success.