NOPA Crush Report

The NOPA Monthly Crush Report aggregates soybean crush reported by members of the National Oilseed Processors Association, a United States trade group.

The group was organized in 1930, and the report is a member census, not a government survey. Its publisher page cites data from 20 member companies covering 99% of the United States soybean crush. A January 2013 announcement cited 12 members running 57 plants in 19 states, about 95% of processing.

Each Statistical Report prints quantities only, with no prices, forecasts or commentary. It is not total United States crush, since non-members are excluded; the full industry count is the USDA Oilseed Crushings report about two weeks later. It does not measure bean production, farm stocks or whole-bean exports. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no such report.

Each issue covers one completed calendar month, with member firms reporting after month end for NOPA aggregation. Release falls around the 15th of the next month at 12:00 noon Eastern. When the 15th is a weekend or holiday, release moves to the next business day.

LSEG, the sole distributor, sends the report to members and paying subscribers only. A 12-month subscription costs US $1,200, and subscribing at least 24 hours before publishing time is required to receive that month's issue.

Each issue prints crush and oil stocks for the reference month, the prior month and the year-ago month across 6 regions plus United States totals. It adds meal produced and oil produced with yields and exports. Earlier months are revised when NOPA finds errors, with corrected cells flagged. The publisher states no thresholds and prints raw summed levels with no seasonal adjustment. Traders therefore compare each result with pre-release analyst estimates, not with a fixed threshold.

Reported crush reflects spring seasonal maintenance, domestic use and export demand for meal and oil.

• Soybean crush: volume of soybeans processed during the reference month, the headline gauge of domestic demand.
• Soybean oil stocks: end-month oil held by member firms; tight stocks support oil prices.
• Soybean meal produced: tons of protein feed made from crushed beans.
• Soybean meal exports: tons shipped abroad, showing export demand.
• Soybean oil produced: pounds of oil for food and fuel use.
• Yield: output per bushel crushed; meal yield is normally 47 to 48 and oil yield 11 to 12.

For the April 2024 reference month, released May 15, 2024, members crushed 166.03 million bushels. That was down 15.46% from March and below an estimate near 183 million. It fell 4.16% from a year earlier to a three-year April low after spring maintenance shutdowns.

Oil stocks still fell 5.2% from March to 1.75 billion pounds on strong domestic offtake including biofuel. So soyoil futures rose 62 to 67 points and meal added $0.50 per ton. Soybeans held near $12.20, so products offset the weak headline. Lesson: the crush headline alone does not set prices.

1. Member reports: each member crusher sends NOPA its monthly crush, stocks, production and export figures.
2. Aggregation: NOPA sums reports into regional subtotals and a United States total, with no sampling weights, no seasonal adjustment and no index.
3. Yields: oil yield equals pounds of oil divided by bushels crushed, while meal yield equals tons times 2,000 divided by bushels crushed.
4. Illustrative example: January 2016 crush was about 150.453 million bushels with oil output of 1,758,384,298 pounds at a yield of 11.69. Meal output was 3,560,987 tons at a yield of 47.34.