Recent Addiction
I am insanely addicted to this type of banana soy milk. How addicted you ask? Addicted enough to buy 12 small ones at a time because I cannot buy them on my island. Addicted enough to go to the websites I found mentioned in small print on the packaging to try and find out whether a larger container of it is available for purchase. It is really, really good. I hit these two sites: Tamabijin, the Honda Trading page about soy cultivation and importation, and Kibun Food Chemifa [sic], the folks who make the banana soy milk drinks with said soy - though they are apparently not proud enough to actually list the glorious banana drink on their products page. What gives?
Well, guess what I discovered? This beloved banana soy milk concoction is made with American soybeans. Beans from southern Michigan and Ohio, to be precise. Japan’s a huge soybean producer, right? I mean, the number one condiment associated with Japanese food is soy sauce, right? And tofu is a huge deal here too, right? So Japan’s gotta be big in the soybean market, right? WRONG. Surprisingly wrong. While Brazil comes in at a very close second place, America dominates the field. (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!) I was really bewildered when I discovered this fact. Granted, I’m from South Carolina - our agriculture tends to gravitate around corn, cotton and tobacco cultivation. (Though chicken, turkey, and cattle pull in gobs of money for us - the majority, actually. I’m discussing crops, so I’m ignoring them.) So maybe my soy ignorance is forgivable.
According to this animation put together by a consulting group, in 1961 America had a 69% share in the global soybean market. That’s nuts. (Soy nuts, even.) In 1972 it topped out at 74% of the market, and as of 2005, it sits at 40% of the global market. Wow. I had no idea. And according to the most recent data available, America produces 66,780,000 metric tons of the total 184,560,000 metric tons produced globally. Not bad. Japan, number 17 on the list of producers, contributes 230,000 tons. I guess that means that it would be way cheaper to buy American soy for banana drink purposes than domestic soy. (And I have no idea about governmental price controls for soybeans here, but I know that they do it with rice. In my opinions that hurts Japan’s agriculture and just makes the farmers dependent on government. But I digress.) Interesting stuff.
By the way, there are no large sizes that I can find. I went to the Kibun Soy Milk Lineup page, too, but they only offer the banana delight in 200 ml singles or 3 packs. However, it seems you CAN buy cases of 18 small ones online for delivery from retailers. (Yay for the Kibun-approved link to Rakuten!) Hmmmm…