USSEC held a poultry roundtable for Maghreb’s feed industry in Maghreb in Marrakech, Morocco from June 16-17 as part of the organization’s FY14 promotion program in the Middle East / North Africa (MENA) region.
USSEC CEO Jim Sutter introduced the organization, and talked about its worldwide partnerships and experience.  Brent Babb, Regional Director - Europe and Middle East / North Africa (MENA), highlighted the advantages of U.S. soy followed by a discussion of U.S. soy production sustainability.  Ed Erickson, of the American Soybean Association (ASA)’s board of directors, explained the latest developments in farming soybean crops to the audience.  Sarah Hanson, Agricultural Attaché, North Africa, gave an overview on U.S. exports to the Maghreb and said that soy is the leading U.S. agricultural value product in the Maghreb.
The presentations of visiting experts focused on recent advances in broiler nutrition and the U.S. broiler integrated industry by USSEC consultant and professor at the University of ArkansasCraig Coon.  USSEC consultant and president of Latigo Managing and Marketing Consultants Mack Graves discussed integrations and branding.  USSEC directors and staff, the MENA team and local Morocco consultant Khalid Benabdeljelil organized the conference which was followed by field visits and meetings with customers in both the Moroccan and Tunisian markets.
The team discussed several issues regarding the importance of high quality ingredients in turkey feeding during a visit to the Maroc Dinde hatchery near Benguerir.  This group produces 60 percent of the turkeys grown in Morocco.  Discussions held at Alf Sahel, the largest feed mill in Morocco, focused on their feeding strategies and integration within a competitive market.  A visit to the Maroc Dinde feed mill in Sofalim allowed the experts to explain the need for high quality feed and ingredients such as U.S. hipro meal to obtain top performance.  The meeting at FISA (Federation of Moroccan Poultry Associations) headquarters covered areas of partnership, trends and growth of the poultry production sector.  The move to integration is inevitable, leading to development of processing and further processing industries, improving returns through value added products
The Maghreb is the largest market in the region for U.S. soy products.  Last year, Morocco imported over 300,000 tons of U.S. soybean meal and Tunisia imported 249,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. Traditionally, Morocco has imported a large percentage of its soybean meal needs from the U.S.  Today, the U.S. maintains a market share in Morocco’s soybean meal market of over 60 percent.  Tunisia sources over 47 percent of its soybeans from the U.S.  Industrial compound feed production amounts to about 3.5 metric tons (MT) in Morocco with 80 percent of this going to the poultry industry.  Poultry remains by far the main user of soybean meal in this area.  Several large entities are already in place and other feed mills are being built, completing new integrations in Morocco and expanding others in Tunisia.