USSEC, in collaboration with the Pakistan Poultry Association (Northern Zone), organized a poultry nutrition seminar in Lahore, Pakistan on May 9 for about 70 key influencers in the poultry industry.

Dr. Karim Bhatti, chairman, PPA (NZ), stated there was good growth in the poultry feed sector with about 9 million metric tons (MMT) of feed milled currently. He recognized the efforts of the U.S. Soy industry in developing this market with its expertise through technical and trade inputs. Abdul Basit, president, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries, who also serves as chairman of Big Bird Group of Companies (Hubbard Parent Stock Producers), spoke about the benefits that the poultry industry had derived from USSEC’s support. Pam Helmsing, USSEC Acting Regional Lead – Asia Subcontinent (ASC) presented a brief overview on USSEC’s global role to promote U.S. Soy.

Dr. Craig Coon, a renowned poultry nutritionist at the University of Arkansas, made two presentations. The first discussed cost savings in the broiler sector with Hi-Pro soybean meal and the second talked about broiler breeder nutrition, in order to demonstrate best cost formulations and build value for U.S. Soy among Pakistan’s poultry producers, feed millers, and poultry feed production and nutritionists. Dr. Coon compared nutrition and reproduction related problems drawing references from the 1990s and contrasting them with modern breeder advancements. He also explained how protein turnover changes are linked to body composition in the pullets and breeder hens in production. Dr. Coon pointed out that future feeding system for breeders would need to consider protein accretion. He stated that the protein requirement for maintenance in broiler breeders is much larger than the daily requirement for egg production or weight gain and will continue to increase with the added protein accretion in modern breeders.

Market demand and preference for U.S. Soy is increasing in Pakistan. Customers have been buying more U.S. soybeans for crushing and some also import U.S soybean meal. USSEC country representative – Pakistan R.S.N. Janjua is connected with USSEC’s marketing strategy development, which emphases building value/preference for U.S. Soy for the poultry industry and also covers tech services to those crush plants that buy U.S. soybeans. So far this marketing year (September 2016 – March 2017), Pakistan has imported 342 thousand metric tons (TMT) of U.S. soybeans (compared to 116 TMT for the entire 2016 marketing year) and has also increased dependence on U.S. soybean meal with current imports at 115 TMT. Overall demand for soybean meal, mainly used by the poultry industry, is indicated at 1.7 MMT for 2016/17. USSEC is in the process of building stronger plans to derive more benefits to the U.S. Soy industry for FY18 and beyond (figures from USDA).