Farmers cultivate a market.

• Position: Eastern

They couldn't move soybean markets closer or push the price higher, so farmers in four Eastern North Carolina counties took matters into their own hands: They are creating their own market and hoping to get bigger bucks for their beans. East Carolina Soy Processors LLC expects to process a million bushels within a year at its $5.4 million plant in Hyde County, says H.A. Respass, a founder and board member. "That might not seem like much in Charlotte or Raleigh, but down here, where you only see a house every 20 miles, it looks pretty big for a bunch of farmers."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Respass, who farms about 6,000 acres near Plymouth, says the idea was planted about five years ago when farmers--most of them in Hyde, Beaufort, Tyrrell and Washington counties--began trying to cut the costs of hauling soybeans to the nearest processing plants, 50 miles away in Cofield and 150 miles away in Raleigh. Prices are based on national markets, but farmers take a hit when local buyers take a cut.

They got a break in 2004 when Seymour, Ind.-based Rose Acre Farms Inc. built a $55 million egg plant in Hyde County. Its 4 million hens eat lots of soybean meal. "They're the second-largest egg producer in the U.S., and they're located within a couple of miles of our plant," Respass says. Rose Acre invested in East Carolina Soy--it owns...