USSEC’s Southeast Asia’s aquaculture program held an implementation meeting in Thailand from December 17 to 21, 2018, to discuss regional and program approaches to orient the aquaculture program to identify how its technical activities can better serve trade concerns.
Participants included the USSEC SEA aquaculture team: Lukas Manomaitis, Pamudi, Chuchai Kanjanamayoon, Levy L. Manalac, Bui Ngoc Thanh, and Hsiang Pin Lan. Additionally, several USSEC and outside experts called in.
USSEC has generally been a marketing program that leverages trade/market access and technical approaches to promote the value and use of U.S. Soy products. After an informative visit to the U.S. Soy complex in Nebraska and Illinois in FY17, the USSEC SEA aquaculture team recognized that its technical program needed to work more closely to understand how trade works with aquaculture. Particularly in light of the recent U.S./China trade issues, it is more important than ever that the team takes the opportunity to change the soy trade flows both in the short term and to cement the soy preference to U.S. Soy in SEA nations. The USSEC SEA aquaculture team worked to develop strategies to accomplish this goal at its Thailand meeting.

The USSEC SEA aquaculture program is becoming more targeted in the ways that it will work to encourage target audiences to continue to purchase U.S. Soy products.
SEA is one of the most important and dynamic areas for aquaculture globally, with a large and well-established aquaculture industry that can continue to grow in size and intensity. World-class aqua feedmill operations continue to expand in this region, presenting an opportunity for a higher usage and inclusion of U.S. soybean meal.