Soya crush plumbs five-year low

Soybean crush margins slumped to a five-year low on Friday as slow soymeal demand and a large South American soy crop weighed on profits at processing plants in the United States, analysts said. The Chicago Board of Trade soy crush fell to 34-3/4 cents per bushel on Friday, the lowest point since at least 2006.
The US Agriculture Department forecast soymeal exports to fall 17 percent in the 2010/11 marketing year that ends on August 30 due in part due a record-large Brazil soy crop and a large harvest in top soymeal exporter Argentina. Spot CBOT soymeal futures this week fell to a seven-month low while futures for soybeans and soyoil fell to three-month lows. In May, processors crushed 128.03 million bushels of soybeans, down 3.7 percent from the same month a year ago, the US Census Bureau said earlier this week.