USSEC hosted a Southeast Asia trade delegation from August 14 to August 19 in the U.S. in conjunction with the 2017 U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange held in Omaha, Nebraska.
During the 6‐day visit, participants had the opportunity to walk through the U.S. supply chain including farms, storage facilities, and crushing plants, as well interaction with farmers and suppliers.
The Southeast Asia trade team, comprised of 36 executives representing 34 companies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, consisted of feed importers. The feed importer group imports raw feed ingredients for use in animal rations. Participants included senior executives, owners, and directors from trading, crushing, feed milling, livestock raising, and associations. All are existing or potential significant purchasers of U.S. Soy.
To kick off the trade mission, the visitors met with teams from Enerfo and Gavilon on August 14. They also got the chance to visit ADM’s crushing facilities to understand what the facility can offer. August 15 consisted of a full day of trade team invitational events where traders were provided with an opportunity to meet with the SEA feed team participants.
August 16 and 17 marked the GTE, where participants were able to interact with U.S growers, trade houses, and other associations at the event. The team participated in the breakout sessions in order to gain valuable information on the U.S. Soy industry, as well as current export logistics challenges.
Participants provided positive feedback on the GTE, saying it provided an opportunity for Southeast Asian soybean customers to meet one‐on‐one with U.S. soybean exporters. Attending the 2017 U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange provided participants with current market information, trends, challenges, and opportunities in the current situation. The exhibitions in between the conference were also beneficial for the team members to gather information and to interact with the exhibitors from the soy and grain industries.
In addition to attending the U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange in Omaha, the feed team also participated in the Nebraska Field Day on August 18, where they visited the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center.
On this visit, Dr. Charles Hibberd, Dean Cooperative Extension Division, presented an informative session on the history of the Land Grant system by the University of Nebraska Extension. Information on the competitive advantage of this open relationship between research and extension for the R&D of corn and soybean planting process to achieve crop excellence was shared during his presentation as well. An outfield experience led by the team also gave the participants an insight on how hail affects crops and the research and experiments to resolve and mitigate this problem.
The feed team also visited Doug Bartek’s farm where he gave the team an in-depth understanding on his farm’s operations and provided them with an in‐depth understanding on how he grows and maintains his crop performance.
On August 18 and 19, a team made up of representatives from the Philippines, travelled to South Dakota and visited South Dakota Soybean Processors and Prairie Aquatech before meeting with South Dakota University. The trip also included two visits to the Dave Poppens and Doug Hanson Farms on August 19.
The trade mission was highly valued by participants for the networking opportunities with suppliers, farm and facilities visits, and benefitting from a better understanding of the U.S. Soy supply chain and logistics.