Editor’s note: The event featured in this story took place prior to the USSEC travel ban due to COVID-19.
USSEC organized the USSEC Buyers and Sellers Conference – Middle East North Africa (MENA) at the Kempinski Hotel Ishtar in Dead Sea, Jordan from March 7 to 10. 65 attendees from the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Russia participated in this workshop, including participants from major crushers, poultry integrators and traders in the regions. The conference primarily focused on risk management.
“[This] was a great event for over 60 soybean buyers representing 13 Arabic and European countries to gather valuable information to improve their business,” said Richard Jelinek, Vice President of Global Education at INTL FCStone Financial, who spoke at the event. “In addition to the education sessions and market outlooks, the learning experience continued outside the classroom with great networking opportunities.”
Matt Ammermann, Commodity Risk Manager- Vice President Eastern Europe/Black Sea Region at INTL FCStone Financial commented, “We had a great risk management seminar in Jordan- Dead Sea.  Topics covered included risk management with futures, options and OTC markets.” He continued, “We also discussed current market trends and market strategies used to manage price risk. The timing of such an event and topics around the idea of risk management were very timely, given the markets impact from coronavirus as well as the Saudi-Russian price war tensions from crude oil. Price risk management remains a crucial part of MENA business actions in the soybean sector; the region has continued growth prospects, thus the need to manage price risk remains essential.”