USSEC hosted the annual U.S. Soy Advantage Buyers Outlook Conference in Seoul, South Korea on November 11. 62 members of the purchasing and technical staffs from Korea’s crushing, feed, and soyfood industries attended the conference. Two USSEC member exporters, SunOpta and Scoular, and nine Korean representatives of U.S. Soy exporters, including ADM and DeLong, were also in attendance.

The conference’s objective was to update the target industries with the U.S. new crop quality and supply situation, and to help Korean customers and U.S. Soy delegates understand each side’s needs better. During the conference, SunOpta and Scoular interacted with food-soybean customers and shared new crop information with them, displaying samples.

United Soybean Board (USB) director Walter Godwin, USSEC and American Soybean Association (ASA) director Monte Peterson, and North Dakota Soybean Council director Perry Ostmo traveled to Korea and participated in the conference. They presented information about this year’s record crop yield, 2016 soybean production and farmers’ risk management. Other conference topics included 2016/17 crop quality, the application of the U.S. Soy Sustainability Assurance Protocol (SSAP), global supply and demand, and market outlook. Attendees gave feedback that two major reasons that they think U.S. Soy is more valuable than that of other origins are the reliability and sustainability of U.S. Soy.

In addition to the conference, the grower leaders visited a tofu plant and feed mill and met with top executives of Sajo Haepyo Corp. to share information on this year’s crop and receive an update on Korea’s crushing market.