A group of twelve selected Russian and Romanian customers attended USSEC training from October 19 – 23 at the University Politechnica of Madrid under the coordination of USSEC course director Gonzalo Mateos. The training’s goal was to educate Eastern European customers in new advances in feed ingredients, focusing on key sources of proteins used in animal feeding: soybean meal, full fat soybean meal and soy concentrates.
In addition to learning about the latest advances in raw materials quality, students had the opportunity to understand Spain’s experience in feed quality control under EU laws and regulations. Field visits were organized as well visits to representative companies from Andalusia, including INALSA (one of the largest independent feed mills in Spain) and COVAP (the second largest dairy feed mill in the country).
Dr. Aurelian Zarnescu of Banvit FNC, Romania said, “During this week we learned valuable knowledge regarding evaluation of raw materials and about the current EU Assurance and Quality Control Systems in the feed industry. The visit to the laboratories of the Inalsa and Covap Feed Mills was the perfect opportunity at the right time for us to reinforce what we are currently implementing: the raw materials quality control systems in our countries. Meantime, the whole event was a unique opportunity to meet and interact and exchange information with our Spanish and Russian feed industry colleagues. We appreciate USSEC’s efforts to put together these technical events, supporting the development of our feed industries.”
Russian participants were excited to be given an opportunity to combine theoretical classes with laboratory exercises and field visits.
Dr. Vladimir Galetsky, deputy director for innovations at one of the largest Russian feed mills, Gatchinsky KKZ, reported that the training provided very useful practical advice and “take home” messages. He was happy to interact and discuss many important feed quality issues and modern feeding practices with EU colleagues. Dr. Galetsky added, “Organizing such trainings by USSEC is very important for Russian customers as the country’s soy demand is growing”.
“Shortly after I returned home from the USSEC training, I started to update our quality control system with the latest knowledge gained at the UPM. Thanks to this new experience and valuable information, we are able to better understand how to monitor the quality of the soybean meal,” commented Ekaterina Varfolomeeva, quality control manager at one of largest pig integrators in the Kaliningrad region.
Dr. Mateos concluded, “Providing education and technical support to soy customers is one of the most efficient ways to demonstrate the value of U.S. Soy and maintain relationships with our customers. We always have very good feedback from students who attend the USSEC training classes and this is expected to lead to a potential increase in U.S. Soy demand from European countries