In an effort to capitalize on the market opportunities offered by the recent dynamic changes in the Southeast European feed and crushing industries, Ohio Soybean Association (OSA) consultant Gunnar Lynum and USSEC Animal Utilization Consultant – Romania Iani Chihaia visited local crushing plants and feed mill companies from May 16 - 18. The goal of this mission was to promote U.S. Soy and create confidence on the end users’ side in directly importing soybeans beans from U.S. farmers and cooperatives.
“Visiting with end users in Bulgaria and Romania at this time of the year is the right time since in a couples of months, harvest will become more of a reality and time allows us to establish commercial contacts and properly follow up with them,” said Mr. Lynum. "I believe that every little win is part of improving market opportunities for U.S. Soy. We would like to see the plants in Romania and Bulgaria processing U.S. Soy and this should happen once the new crop is harvested.”
Even if is not the largest soy user in the EU, southeast Europe’s sub region offers opportunities for U.S. Soy exports simply because of the high interest from local companies to secure their soy ingredient supply under the current market situation. In this regard, soy extrusion plants are looking at ways of getting back into production by the U.S. harvest season. In the meantime, Bulgarian oilseeds are currently exploring possibilities of converting existing sunflower processing plants to soybean crushing in order to optimize profitability. By working closely with the local industries, a supply chain should be developed between U.S. Soy farmers and end users from Southeast Europe, a market which is using over 800,000 tons annually.