USSEC sponsored the 8^th Modern Compound Feed Production (“Mixed Feeds-2014”) International Conference in Moscow, Russia.  The event, which took place from June 23-25, was attended by 184 participants, including management from the Russian Compound Feeds Manufacturers Union and the Russian Feed Industry Research Institute, along with many other livestock professional associations and unions, directors, production managers, nutritionists, technical experts from integrated companies, poultry and livestock farms, feed mills, university professors, researchers from institutes and laboratories and mass media representatives.  Delegates from 22 regions of Russia and 11 foreign countries participated in the conference.
USSEC Animal Utilization Consultant – Romania Iani Chihaia, presented a lecture titled, “Soybean Meal Quality and Associated Considerations in Feed Formulation” at the plenary session of the conference.  He provided information on U.S. and global soybean and soybean meal statistics, trading and quality grades, explaining why U.S. soybeans and soybean meal are characterized by a consistent high quality.  Dr. Chihaia paid special attention to the quality factors of U.S. soybean meal which should be considered in feed formulations.
USSEC’s presentation was highly evaluated by conference attendees.  Delegates said that they were interested and thankful for the presented materials and remarked on Dr. Chihaia’s professional knowledge of the topic.  The USSEC booth was visited by many local animal breeders, compound feed producers, soybean crushers and journalists who wanted to get additional materials on the benefits of soy for animal performance, feed formulations and quality assessment of soy products.  Visitors received USSEC’s brochure, “All Soybean Meal is Not Created Equal,” which details the differences in soybean meal quality according to origin along with CDs containing the 2^nd edition of “Manual of Soy Quality Analysis.”
Russia’s interest of soy usage in feed formulations has steadily increased over the past few years due to the growing development of the local poultry and swine industry.  USSEC programs contribute to increase the knowledge of Russian animal and poultry breeders and compound feed producers on modern soy feeding practices and have led to a better understanding of the nutritional benefits of U.S. soy.  One of the constraints of local feed formulations is a low soy inclusion rate with up to 60-70 percent grain ingredients.
Russia has significantly increased its import of U.S. soybeans this season.  In the current marketing year, Russia has imported 393 thousand metric tons of U.S. soybeans, marking an increase of over 600 percent versus the same period of the 2013 marketing year.  The total volume of U.S. soybean imports to Russia over the past eight months exceeded one million metric tons.  During this period, the U.S. was the leading supplier of soybeans to the Russian market, followed by Paraguay.