USSEC recently participated in a poultry seminar in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The conference offered talks and discussions to increase the attendees’ knowledge in poultry nutrition, especially their awareness of the use of soy in poultry nutrition.
USSEC consultants Professor Gonzalo Mateos and Dr. Iani Chihaia both spoke at the seminar, focusing on U.S. soy quality and usage in broiler nutrition.  Participants heard clear messages and received advice that could be immediately applied to potentially improve the performance of the local poultry industry.  The lectures clearly positioned U.S. soy as a tool to improve performance and stimulate progress in the local poultry and feed production sectors.

Russian poultry nutritionists and feed producers in attendance positively rated the USSEC speakers’ papers and their content, saying they increased their understanding of U.S. soy quality and differentiation.  The information conveyed will allow poultry nutritionists in Russia to improve product performance and operations in general.
After the seminar, the USSEC consultants met with Ekaterina Varfolomeeva, the soy products sales and marketing manager of Sodrugestvo crushing plant, based in Kaliningrad.  “I had the honor and pleasure to meet with Dr. Gonzalo Mateos and Dr. Iani Chihaia.  The USSEC consultants helped us to understand the nutritional benefits of soy products and how to position dehulled soybean meal and soy protein concentrate in the local and regional markets,” she said.  “The high quality of U.S. beans we have imported in the current marketing year from Perdue Grain and Oilseed Ltd., LD Commodities Oilseeds Merchandising LLC, and ZENNOH Grain Exports allowed us high extraction rates and helped to produce high quality meal.  Our poultry customers are more satisfied with low variability meals,” she added.
Russia recently imported approximately 400 thousand metric tons (TMT) of U.S. soybeans and is one of the largest and fastest growing soy markets in Europe.  Demand for protein feed continues to grow in line with the expansion of the local poultry industry, with the current poultry crop consisting of more than half a million heads.  Poultry meat production is forecast to reach 3.9 million metric tons (MMT) in 2014 and 4.5 MMT by 2020.  The Russian poultry industry’s soybean meal demand is estimated at 3.5 MMT in 2015 based on low average inclusion rates in diets (20 percent for broilers and 10 percent for layers).

USSEC consultants visit local seminars, conferences, and exhibitions, along with consulting with local clients, which allows Russian nutritionists and compound feed producers to increase their knowledge of modern feeding practices and usage of soy in feed formulations, to better understand the nutritional benefits of U.S. soy and to promote the local soy market growth.