Gunnar Lynum, Ohio Soybean Association consultant and Dr. Iani Chihaia, USSEC regional consultant, promoted U.S. Soy in a series of meetings with main Romanian feed mills equipped with soy extrusion equipment during the second week of June. USSEC consultant Dr. Jan van Eys joined the team to stress the quality of U.S. Soy to the Romanian end users. Customer visits took place predominantly in the East Romania region.

At each visit, Mr. Lynum detailed the advantages of direct producer-customer contact and trading through a container-based offer. Savings are evident both at the level of quality as well as financially.
A proper formulation study, combined with a matrix value calculation for each U.S. soybean class should supply additional, strong arguments. Customers are clearly interested at looking at the logistic and financial opportunities. Response was positive and the opportunity was readily recognized by customers, especially the formulation advantage. The companies visited are interested to follow the developments on this and have asked to remain updated.
The field visits allowed consultants to witness the current status of the Romanian feed and livestock sectors. It is evident that Romanian livestock production is growing rapidly and well above the rate of growth seen in other Eastern European countries. This will require an increased amount of commodities, high quality raw materials, and know-how. Consequently, the prospects for U.S. Soy are excellent and deserve further effort and attention. Such future field visits and activities are needed for customers’ relationships to continue and to build a preference among U.S. Soy customers.