ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Vanessa Kummer of Colfax, N.D., was elected as 2012 chair of the 69-member United Soybean Board (USB) at the group’s 20th annual meeting here on Dec. 6.

Kummer, who served as USB vice chair in 2011, told the board her focus for the coming year is not on being the first woman elected USB chair. “It’s not about who your chairperson is,” she said. “It’s about doing the job we’ve all been appointed to do, and that’s to invest farmer dollars for profitability and maximum profit opportunities for our U.S. soybean farmers.”

Jim Stillman, from Emmetsburg, Iowa, was elected USB vice chair. Other members of the nine-member executive team in 2012 include Sharon Covert, from Tiskilwa, Ill., and Jim Schriver, from Montpelier, Ind. Marc Curtis, from Leland, Miss., will also continue to serve on the leadership team as past chair.

The group’s new leader said one of the USB’s priorities in the coming year is to implement and integrate the group’s long-range plan.

“I plan to see that our new strategic plan serves as the roots that allow the U.S. soy industry to flourish,” she said. “USB has every intent to invest in programs to improve U.S. soybean meal and oil, to ensure U.S. soybean farmers have the freedom and infrastructure to operate and to see that we meet the needs of, and provide services to, our customers – whether poultry, livestock and fish farmers here and abroad or the food and industrial users of our soy.”

 The USB directs the disbursement of soybean checkoff funds, and Kummer said the group will continue carefully managing the checkoff. “United Soybean Board farmers and I have engaged in a rigorous examination and discussion of how the soybean checkoff does business,” she said.

Michael Beard, a USB director from Frankfort, Ind., said the USB operates as efficiently as possible, with everything accountable. “We have far greater responsibility than 20 years ago due to the growth of our market,” he said.

The value of U.S. soybean production has more than tripled since 1991, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service.

Jim Call, the 2012 USB secretary from Madison, Minn., said the group will also face the challenge of supporting the animal ag sector. “That’s an area that has been under a lot of pressure financially lately,” said Call.

Members of the USB Executive Team said continuing the group’s aquaculture initiative is also important for market growth.

“Aquaculture has been based on fish meal in the past, and one of our priorities is getting it switched over to a plant-based diet, which includes soybean meal,” said Call.

Kummer said visiting an aquaculture producer in Ghana this fall helped her see the importance of developing the soy market globally for U.S. producers.

“It’s a great fit for some of these countries that do not have the economic development that we do,” she said. “Aquaculture is a great fit for countries that need those (soy) proteins more.”

China still remains the largest whole bean export destination for U.S. soy. But the new USB leadership says focusing on other markets to increase exports is important.

“We can’t just depend on one market,” said Call. “Europe, for instance, is the largest meal market in the world and we’ve been focusing efforts in that area, trying to get some of that meal market share back.”

Southeast Asia also remains a focus for exports. U.S. soy exports reached a record value of more than $25.5 billion in 2011, according to Kummer.

She said another priority for her and the incoming leadership team is developing future leaders. “I also want to work on leadership development and diversification,” she said. “That doesn’t mean adding more women, necessarily; it means diversification and equal opportunities for all directors to have leadership opportunities and training.”

The leadership development effort, according to Kummer, will also include state soybean boards.

“We are charged by USDA to have more diversity, and I think it needs to start at the state level,” she said. “That includes having more women serve, but also having diversity in other ways.”

Kummer plans to continue working closely with the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA), a task she began as vice chair. “We have already been working together and have a good relationship for moving forward and working in the future,” she said in her acceptance remarks Dec. 6.

The ASA focuses on state and national policy issues. The soybean checkoff is prohibited, by law, from lobbying on such issues.