This year, USSEC provided knowledge and sponsorship funding to the Polish Grain & Feed Chamber, a key industry association in Northeast Europe that supports various U.S. Soy activities in Poland and Europe. USSEC invited top executives from the organization to attend the World Soy Feeds Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. USSEC consultant – Northeast Europe Jerzy W. Kosieradzki escorted the small group.
The conference was devoted to soybean production and trade, and soybean utilization in both human consumption and animal feed. Many presentations concentrated on soy supply and demand information, protein markets outlook, processing technologies and its resulting products, animal feed formulation, and making the best use of soy-based ingredients. An independent commercial company of SFERA based in Russia organized the event, and USSEC helped with funding and speakers. USSEC consultants Maria Domoroshchenkova (Russia) and Iani Chihaia (Romania) were among the speakers at the conference and also spent time discussing soy and feed issues with the organization’s Polish customers.
The Polish customers were very involved and paid attention to the presentations and materials made available to them. Anna Zymerman, Secretary General of the Polish Grain & Feed Chamber shared, “The outlook for the global and Russian meat and feed industry presented in the long and also short term perspective explained by Mr. Nan-Dirk Mulder of Rabobank International provided a lot of value to me and my organization.” She also stated that the story was further developed by all other presentations in the first session.
The Polish guests were also introduced to many speakers and attendees, including Professor Valerij Afanasyev, President of the Russian Feed Union, and Mr. Vladimir Manaenkov, Executive Director of the National Feed Manufacturers Association.
The conference also gave the Polish group an opportunity to meet Mr. David Leishman, Director of the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office in Russia, who was happy to see USSEC promoting U.S. Soy in Russia and neighboring countries builds bridges among the professional people in Russia, Europe and the U.S.