Three Moroccan customers attended the 6th annual U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange and the 15th annual Midwest Specialty Grain Conference and Trade Show held jointly in Kansas City, Missouri August 28 – 31. The event marked the sixth year that the two organizations co-hosted it.
The forum drew qualified soybean buyers from 53 markets to Kansas City, a center for U.S. agriculture transportation, including major intermodal rail operations going to all coasts.
A field day (farm and industry visits) and Trade Team Invitational (TTI) meetings encouraged discussions between buyers and suppliers throughout two days. A short risk management session was held on the last day of the program. The first day featured a field tour for Middle East / North Africa (MENA) customers, allowing attendees to tour agriculture, trade, and transportation operations in the local Kansas area. The TTI offered an excellent opportunity for open discussions between interested exporters and buyers from the region. The first day of the conference focused on commodity program session including a world soybean and grain supply and demand outlook; evaluating soybeans from different origins; and technologies that are shaping the future of international agricultural trade.
The second day highlighted specialty soy programs, sessions that included discussions about container shipping. The event ended with a panel discussion on international trade, moderated by USSEC CEO Jim Sutter. The discussions with exhibitors at the trade show included those with company representatives involved in commodities logistics trading, imports, containerized shipping, food and feed Ingredients suppliers, soybean promotion associations, and laboratories.
Brent Babb, USSEC Regional Director – EU/MENA, highlighted the fact that EU/MENA represents the second largest market for U.S. Soy after China. The Morocco market has the highest growth of U.S. soybean meal exports in the region; volumes exceeded 400 thousand metric tons (TMT) of U.S. soybean meal imports, higher than those of the last three years combined.