The world’s top growth market for printer’s ink made from soybeans plans todouble the amount of soy ink it uses this year. Estimates are, Japan willincrease its use of soy ink from 177-thousand bushels to more than350-thousand. Iowa soy promoters say it’s thanks to agressive marketing.Jo Patterson is coordinator for the National Soy Ink Information Center inUrbandale. She says the new estimates for Japan’s soy ink usage are a realboost to U-S soybean growers.There are about a hundred factories in the U-S that make ink out ofsoybeans. Only one of them is in Iowa — and it’s in Des Moines. Pattersonsays it’ll be -little- challenge for U-S soybean growers to meet Japan’sdoubled demand for soy ink, which will require 350-thousand bushels.That means one in five newspapers across the U-S is using soy ink.
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