Is ExPress® Soybean Meal Profitable in Layer Diets?
ExPress® soybean meal processed from raw soybeans is a novel feed ingredient in many parts of the world. Nutritionists know they need soybean meal, but solvent-extracted meal is often the only product available.
Little by little, Insta-Pro is providing revolutionary soybean technology that uses no chemicals and offers higher amino acid (AA) digestibility and higher energy value than solvent meal.
Every day, companies come to us with soybean projects. Soybeans are grown around the world but must be processed to deactivate anti-nutritional factors; but very few economies can afford and support a multi-million dollar chemical processing plant. An ExPress® plant, however, can cost under $500,000 and there is no limit on future capacity. Capacity is entirely flexible – it can be increased by adding extra modules (a module is an extruder + oil press).
The first question is: “Will it be profitable?”
None of us want to waste time quoting equipment that will not make a profit. The good news is that nearly all soybean plants, however small, can be profitable within 12-30 months. How do we know this?
The first step is establishing a project feasibility analysis. To do so, we work with the customer to assemble key prices: soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil, electricity cost, labor cost, a building to be erected or rented, interest rate, tax rate, packaging costs, and so on. Once we have the data, a feasibility can be calculated in an hour or two, using our feasibility analysis spreadsheet.
We then share the result with the customer. In most cases, the investment will be paid off in 12-30 months. The analysis also provides net present value, rate of return and cash flow. Clearly it is a photograph of a situation at a given moment in time. 6 months later, prices may have changed but that can also be analyzed, and the feasibility updated.
In most markets, ExPress® soybean meal sells at a premium over solvent meal, because nutritionists know they have higher AA digestibility, higher energy, lower moisture and they will use less synthetic AAs. This premium typically varies between $30-$80 per metric tonne.
In a recent layer trial in the U.S., each bird on the ExPress® diet consumed 80 grams less feed, which reduced feed costs by $0,25 per bird, for the same egg quality as the control diet.
Contact us if you would like a copy of the layer trial results.
