USSEC continues to maximize the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) program funds to support both its short-term and long-term strategies that will build new markets for U.S. soybean producers. The focal point of this strategy is to make investments into new markets where there is significant future potential due to factors such as large populations, improving economic conditions and low protein consumption.

Recently, USSEC coordinated a trade mission to Bangladesh. Participating on behalf of USSEC and the United Soybean Board (USB) were USSEC and USB directors Darren Kadlec and Lance Rezac. They joined representatives from the Iowa Soybean Association and other soy partner representatives. Participants engaged with soybean buyers, purchasers and other stakeholders representing the soybean value chain. The trade delegation also had meetings with Ambassador Earl Miller and Tyler Babcock, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) ag attaché.
Among other visits, the U.S. soy trade delegation toured the City Crush Organization’s processing facility near Dhaka (pictured), which was unloading and processing U.S. soybeans originating from the PNW while the group toured the facility. CCO employees expressed a strong commitment to U.S. Soy, claiming the facility exclusively crushes U.S. soybeans and prefers our quality, “which has better protein and oil content for ease of (the) refining situation.”
CCO traces its support from learnings that representatives gained while participating in last summer’s PNW Soy Bazaar that was organized by USSEC, the Minnesota Soybean Association, Nebraska Soybean Board, North Dakota Soybean Council and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.  That stateside event was supported by ATP program funds.
Looking forward, USSEC will continue to leverage these types of relationship-building opportunities to connect buyers and sellers around the world in several markets to promote and amplify U.S. Soy’s competitive advantage.