U.S. Grains Council (USGC) members from around the United States and staff from around the globe are beginning their transit to Panama City, Panama, for the organization’s 14th International Marketing Conference and 57th Annual Membership Meeting beginning over the weekend.

The conference is a once-a-year opportunity for these groups to meet, trade perspectives on the grain market and set strategy for the organization’s work. This input is essential to the Council’s annual programmatic planning as well as development of its long-term strategy document, the Unified Export Strategy (UES).

The Panama meeting is expected to be the largest on record for the Council, with well over 300 member delegates, staff and spouses in attendance.

“We are excited to be able to have so many members coming for our International Marketing Conference this year,” said Chip Councell, USGC chairman and a grain farmer in Maryland. “It’s a critical time for trade policy and market development efforts. We know in farm country that we need this demand building more than ever. I look forward to the conversations we have in Panama and the actions that result from that work together.”

On Sunday, registration and optional tours will operate while the group’s Board of Directors meet. A general session on Monday will welcome all attendees before a full tour of the Agua Clara Panama Canal expansion, which is expected to provide a new and modern pathway for increasingly large shipments of U.S. grain.

USGC committees, known as Advisory Teams, will meet all day Tuesday before an evening event at the Miraflores Locks in the historical Panama Canal, and the full Board of Delegates will hold a business meeting on Wednesday.

Materials for registered attendees will be available electronically for participants to download and access through the Guidebook meeting app.

Additional information about the meeting agenda, location and more is available here.

Much more about meeting happenings will be available throughout the week on the Council’s social media pages, Facebook and Twitter, and in future editions of this newsletter.