USSEC organized conferences for North Dakota food bean suppliers in Punjab and Bhopal in the Madhya Pradesh states of India as part of North Dakota’s mission to establish trade relations and opportunities for North Dakota companies with the world’s second most populous country.

These conferences focused exclusively on U.S. food specialty soybeans. More than 60 soy food companies attended interactive sessions at both locations.
The North Dakota team explained the quality and pricing attributes of U.S. food beans and educated the Indian companies on the U.S. trade, CBOT, contracts, price locking and other trade practices. Participating North Dakota companies including SB&B Foods, SunOpta, and SK Food International, gave presentations about their respective companies and products.
USSEC Director – India Food Program Dr. Ratan Sharma talked about the quality difference between Indian and U.S. Soy as well as the U.S. Soy Sustainability Protocol (SSAP), sustainable supply, and consistent quality, along with facilitating the meetings. Companies shared information about their customers and discussed about how they build up relationships and trust.

India does not grow food specialty beans, and there is a scarcity of beans at times. Quality, consistency and sustainable supply are always a problem. This was an eye opening experience for the Indian soy food companies and they showed a great interest in U.S. food beans.
USSEC India has already conducted U.S. soybean trials in India for making various products and demonstrated the superiority of U.S. beans to the Indian end users. There is a huge potential for U.S. food beans in India, and traders are already in the process of obtaining the necessary certifications for importing U.S. non-GM food beans in India.