Seven participants from Latin America traveled to the International Grains Program (IGP) Institute Conference Center in Manhattan, Kansas on December 15 and 16 to engage in USSEC’s Risk Management Latin America course. The collaboration between USSEC and the IGP Institute provided education and training to these professionals about current risk management practices.
IGP curriculum manager Carlos Campabadal led the course, giving several lectures with the help of guest presenters. The relationship between USSEC and the IGP helps provides skills for mitigating risk during grain purchasing is highlighted in this training. Course participant Angela Maria Ayora, a general manager for egg production companies in Colombia, saw this firsthand.
“It was a great opportunity for me,” said Ms. Ayora. “I decided to take advantage of it and to get all the information that I can so I can figure out how to apply it to the six companies I represent and in my daily job responsibilities.”
Fellow course participant Juan Esteban Mejia, a farm manager also from Colombia, said that he hopes to put the techniques he learned at the IGP Institute to use when he returns home. 
 “It would be good for our companies in Colombia to learn from this training and explore the possibility of not taking on so much risk,” Mr. Mejia stated. “Right now we are always in the market. It has been beneficial to see how the whole network works.”