U.S. soybean farmers now have access to faster and more efficient international-shipping methods when delivering U.S. soy to global end users.

The long-awaited Panama Canal expansion recently opened, doubling the waterway’s capacity. The new, larger lane allows more freight to be loaded on each vessel and decreases transit time and transportation costs overall. Soy checkoff farmer-leader bob Metz from South Dakota explains the benefits for soybeans farmers.

“The majority of the beans, especially coming out of the center of the United States, actually goes through the Panama Canal to go to our customers in China and Southeast Asia,” he said. “And the expansion of the Panama Canal is going to be very important to us as U.S. soybean farmers to be able to use larger boats to haul the soybeans to our number one customer China.”

For U.S. soybean farmers to be able to fully capitalize on the expanded canal, domestic transportation infrastructure used to move U.S. soy into export position is in need of maintenance and repair.