The first batch of Brazilian soymeal imported by the Wilmington Bulk LLC consortium of hogs and poultry producers will arrive in the United States next week, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. "The meal will arrive in the last week of May," said Jeff Turner, spokesman for Wilmington Bulk, adding that the 30,000-cargo was already on its way to the United States. Wilmington Bulk has booked 100,000 tonnes of Brazilian soymeal for shipment to the United States because the company says domestic prices were too high. Consortium-member Murphy Brown LLC, a unit of Smithfield Foods Inc. (nyse: SFD - news - people), has bought another 100,000 tonnes of Brazilian soymeal. Turner said he expected the remaining soymeal to be shipped every two weeks in similar amounts. Wilmington maintains that high domestic transportation costs make it cheaper for the Wilmington, North Carolina-based company to import soymeal than buy it domestically. There has been speculation that some U.S. grain companies and end-users would be importing South American soymeal due to tight supplies of soybeans in the United States. U.S. soybean stocks are projected by the U.S. Agriculture Department to be the lowest in 27 years this marketing year ending Aug. 31 due to a short crop and brisk exports, especially to China, early in the season.
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