USSEC and the IGP Institute partner to offer training in soy purchasing to individuals in the grain marketing industry.
As part of Kansas State University’s IGP Institute’s mission to educate foreign and domestic groups and create a preference for U.S. grains, they partnered with USSEC to educate prospective buyers at the U.S. Agribusiness Partnership Program in Soy Purchasing course held June 5–9 at the IGP Institute Conference Center in Manhattan, Kansas.
The course was taught by KSU and USSEC faculty and staff and covered topics including the U.S. grain production and marketing system; U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grain standards and how they are implemented; insights into soybean and grain production practices; dynamics of international grain trading-contracting practices; U.S. export grain inspection system; fundamentals of futures trading and hedging; and several grain marketing topics.
The course not only featured classroom presentations and discussions, but also included
lab activities in the KSU Bioprocessing and Industrial Value Added Program and tours of the O.H. Kruse Feed Technology Innovation Center in Manhattan, Kansas; Bunge in Emporia, Kansas; Wenger Manufacturing in Sabetha, Kansas; and Lance Rezac’s soybean farm near Onaga, Kansas.
“IGP is a very interesting institute and part of the university where I can learn new things,” says Kusuma Dewi Tjahyono, vice president of overseas procurement at Japfa Comfeed in Jakarta, Indonesia. “I am very interested in all of the topics in this course. Aside from learning in the class, I was able to
go out to the field tour and see for myself how they operate and what the farm was doing with the machinery. I can also understand how to manage the crop later on regarding minimizing the loss from disease or insects.”