USSEC is participating in the Sino – U.S. Poultry Industry Development Summit being held in Beijing and Shanghai, China and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from November 10 – 18.  USSEC personnel and grower leaders will participate in the summit in Beijing, a fish harvest in Shanghai and the U.S. poultry summits in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.  The objective of this visit is to help Chinese and Vietnamese buyers improve their purchasing strategy and encourage them to buy more U.S. soy.  The U.S. soy delegation included:  Marc Curtis, United Soybean Board (USB) Past Chairman & Director, Mississippi; Bret Davis, American Soybean Association (ASA) Director, Ohio; Jim Sutter, USSEC CEO; Pam Helmsing, USSEC International Feed Marketing Manager; and Kirk Leeds, USSEC Vice Chairman and Iowa Soybean Association CEO;  .

In Beijing, the team visited the USSEC offices where they met with Paul Burke, USSEC North Asia Regional Director, who reviewed the trip itinerary and team objectives.  Zhang Xiaoping, USSEC China Country Director, provided a market update.  Mr. Burke, Mr. Zhang and Richard Han, USSEC Animal Utilization Technical Director, then discussed USSEC’s China differentiation strategy, the North Asia - China budget situation, USSEC’s China government relations program, and the U.S.-China Agricultural and Food Partnership (AFP).  After lunch, the group visited DuPont and ChinaTex, whose grains and oils business includes the trading, processing and warehousing of soybeans.  That evening, participants attended the Sino – U.S Poultry Forum VIP Banquet.
The Sino – U.S. Poultry Industry Development Summit opened the following day, November 12, with a welcome from several speakers including Mr. Sutter, who also served as moderator of that morning’s plenary session.  Sessions covering poultry safety and management practice trends, along with panel discussions, were held that afternoon with a gala banquet in the evening.
On Wednesday, November 13, Ms. Helmsing, Mr. Leeds, Mr. Curtis and Mr. Davis were escorted by Mr. Burke and Claudia Chong, USSEC Marketing Manager, from Beijing to Shanghai where they traveled to Pingwang Aqua Farm in Wujiang in Jiangsu Province, located approximately 100 kilometers to the west of Shanghai.  Pingwang Aqua Farm is one of the leading producers in the region with about 2,000 mu (one acre equals six mu) of fish ponds for grass carp fingerling production plus more than 50,000 mu of open water for grow-out fish production.  Through several years of cooperation, Pingwang Aqua farm has become a good partner and friend to USSEC.  The farm has adopted and benefited from the feed-based and eco-friendly aquaculture technology promoted by USSEC, and has successfully conducted several feeding trials / demonstrations in the past year, including the Intensive Pond Aquaculture (IPA) demonstration, which participants witnessed being inventory harvested that day.  The cooperation between Pingwang Aqua Farm and USSEC has contributed not only to the utilization of U.S. soy products in Chinese aquaculture but also to the regional aquaculture development with an estimation of China’s soy consumption by aquaculture at 7.5 million metric tons.  While at Pingwang Aqua Farm, the grower leaders were briefed by the USSEC aquaculture staff.  While in Shanghai, the delegation will also visit the Liangyou new port facility and crushing plant on November 14.
The U.S. team will then travel to Hanoi where they will participate in the U.S. Poultry Industry Summit on November 15.  This summit, like the summit in Beijing, provides an opportunity for participants to attend a plenary session, hear about poultry safety from the farm to the processor, and trends in management practices.  The group will travel to Ho Chi Minh City on November 16; they will participate in group activities and tours and will meet with importers and end-users on November 17.  The U.S. Poultry Industry Summit will take place on November 18 and will follow the same format as the summits in Beijing and Hanoi.