By: Kevin Roepke, U.S. Grains Council Regional Director for Southern Asia

The 12th annual Agricultural Cooperators Conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia, last month created renewed interest among buyers of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and an opportune time to network between buyers and sellers of this valuable U.S. corn co-product.

More than a fifth of Southern Asia and Oceania’s annual DDGS sales volumes were either inked or discussed during the recently-held conference, co-sponsored by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC).

The 335,000 metric tons of DDGS valued at $81 million that was traded during the week of the conference marked a new record. This year’s sales bested the previous record set in 2011, which was the first time the conference officially promoted DDGS.

In 2014, the United States sold approximately 1.6 million tons of DDGS to the countries that were represented during this conference. If the region imports similar amounts of DDGS this year, this event would be directly responsible for almost one out of every five tons of DDGS sold to the region.

By bringing together key decision makers with U.S. suppliers and providing them a central location to network, this conference helped facilitate these sales. Southeast Asia is a very challenging market for traders to service due to geography, making the USGC/USSEC conference a unique and valuable meeting place.

If traders want to visit customers in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, they will spend significant time traveling. This conference is designed to streamline that process, allowing Southeast Asian buyers and U.S. sellers to network under one roof, in one location.

“This conference in Southeast Asia allowed for great relationships to be developed that, hopefully, can pay dividends in the future,� said Brandon Hunnicutt, a representative of the Nebraska Corn Board who delivered the U.S. corn crop report during the conference.

“From my networking during the conference, I was able to learn what the opportunities are in this part of the world and how U.S. farmers can become a key supplier of coarse grains to this region.�

Besides time to network, the 170 attendees of the conference benefited from a strong agenda that included U.S. farmer crop reports for both corn and soybeans, a global transportation outlook, review of risk management tools and information on feed sector developments.

Click here to read a previous Global Update article about the conference.