More than 40 Southeast Asian buyers of food- and feed-grade soybeans and soymeal met with U.S. soy growers and contract suppliers during the 2014 U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange. These trade team invitational meetings kick-started a two-week long exchange for buyers from Southeast Asia.
The buyer-supplier meetings scheduled by USSEC on September 16 and 17 provided Southeast Asian soy procurers with an opportunity to meet up with U.S. suppliers, ask questions and receive the most up-to-date crop reports in the days leading up to what is proving to be a record U.S. soy harvest and yields in a decade.
“These buyer-supplier meetings are the best part of the trade exchange,” enthused Naswan Halim Hsu, a soy importer from PT Enes Agribisnis in Indonesia.

Buyers were divided into two teams each for food and feed, according to country.  The scheduled sessions were comprised of four to five meetings on September 16 and two meetings on September 17, all of which took place in the morning before the U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange.
While the early start proved to be a challenge for the jet-lagged participants—meetings on September 16 began at 7 a.m., for instance—many appreciated this once-yearly opportunity to meet up with key suppliers face-to-face.
A repeat participant of the U.S. Global Soy Exchange, Krishnakumar Gopalasamy of Dutch Mill in Thailand, shared that the key draw for him was the opportunity to meet with U.S. suppliers and get first-hand updates on the upcoming harvest and seed varieties for food soybeans, while gleaning the latest market information at the co-located Midwest Specialty Grains & Grains Export Shipping Conference.
Mai Trung Truc of Maido Trading Service in Vietnam added that the Global Soy Exchange provided him the chance to confirm trade deals of feed-grade soy and meal worth up to $5 million.