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Rivers, MB | A key thing to remember. Cash price = Futures price + basis.
Futures markets are based on a certain product, of a certain quality, at a certain time, at a given location. It allows anyone in the world to trade/hedge/speculate a known quantity with the same set of variables so you are trading apples to apples.
So the futures price of a product (in your question-soybeans) is for soybeans at the delivery point explained in the futures contract for a given month.
But. We know that it costs money to get soybeans from Iowa to New Orleans down the Missippi. Or to get it landed in a boat on the shores of China.
So futures sets the "standard" value. And basis makes up the difference between the standard value and the cash price to get it to the buyer (including storage, handling, freight, risk etc).
So in your question, if your end user is a distance away from the soybean delivery point, it makes sense that there will be a difference in the value of the beans because of distance.
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Why a Basis?
