Traditional soybean oil turns rancid rather quickly, limiting shelf life or needing hydrogen gas to be added, creating trans fats. Pioneer’s Plenish soybeans offer three times the shelf life of conventional beans without hydrogenation. Maybe that’s why growers will plant more than 600,000 acres in Indiana and Ohio, as well as Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. With yields that compare to Pioneer’s top varieties, the company is targeting 15 million acres to be planted to high-oleic soybeans in the future, aiming to replace cotton as the 4th largest crop in the U.S.

“Anywhere serious bean production occurs and there is processing plant access, we think, is an opportunity for Plenish,” said Russ Sanders, director of food and industry markets at DuPont Pioneer. “As volume grows, there are more delivery locations and more delivery windows for farmers and more seed products to choose from as we expand our portfolio. Those economics favor us as we increase our scale.”