soybean field

USSEC Holds 1st Round Table Meetings for Soy Oil Processors in Egypt

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USSEC – Middle East North Africa (MENA) organized its first round table meeting for Egyptian soybean oil processors in Cairo, Egypt on September 10. Approximately 25 local key soybean oil refiners and crushers participated.
USSEC regional technical and commercial consultant Najeh Asad moderated the event and two Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) staff members from the Cairo office attended the roundtable. Orestes Vasquez, Agricultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, provided opening remarks on behalf of Ronald Verdonk, the Regional Agricultural Minister Counselor.
Mr. Asad highlighted USSEC’s mission and potential projects to be carried out in Egypt promoting the use of U.S. Soy in the Egyptian market. He also spoke on the trends and growth of Egypt’s soybean oil sector.
Addressing customer issues, the consultant discussed the related refining difficulties due to the associated high green color and the high free fatty acid content, in addition to the possible causes of the color reversion occurrence in freshly refined soybean oil produced recently by a large number of the local refineries using crude soybean oil produced by local crushers from soybeans of non – U.S. origin.
The roundtable meetings were followed by site visits to key leading customers, during which the consultant discussed and presented the importance and advantages of U.S. soy oil attributes either obtained by direct import from the U.S. or by local crush of U.S. soybeans, in addition to the high value of related logistics issues.
Currently, Egypt uses over 600 thousand metric tons (TMT) of soybean oil with a total vegetable oil consumption of about 2.4 million metric tons (MMT). Additionally, Egypt consumes over 2 MMT of whole soybeans, which are mostly used by crushers to produce oil and meal. The local crush industry supplies about 50 percent of the country’s requirement, while the rest is covered through imports.