USSEC recently hosted a roundtable discussion for Korean soyfood processor associations and companies to discuss the soy import quota enacted by the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA). USSEC continues to encourage importers to take advantage of the import quota cited in the FTA for 10,000 metric tons (MT) of soybeans in 2012 and 20,000 MT in 2013. This meeting served as a follow-up to a USSEC workshop held in May before the FTA was fully implemented. The agreement has increased market opportunity for U.S. variety-specific soy in Korea.
USSEC invited Dr. Chung’s Food, a soy food processing company, to speak on its experience with importing soy within the FTA quota. Representatives from more than 15 companies and trade organizations heard presentations on the market outlook for U.S. soy and learned about container shipping.