With a rapidly-growing middle class and increasing demand for coarse grains products in Southeast Asia, the U.S. Grains Council has worked to position the United States as a leading supplier of high-quality grains to this region. Recently the Council furthered these efforts by working with the Foreign Agricultural Service and Nebraska Corn Board to bring a team of nine executives from Southeast Asian feed companies, trading groups and livestock integrators to Kansas and Nebraska. By all accounts, the trip was a success at enhancing relationships between Southeast Asian end-users and U.S. suppliers.
During this visit, the team attended a short course at the International Grains Program, visited regional agricultural facilities, and held in-person meetings with U.S. traders. The opportunity to meet face-to-face with local farmers and ethanol producers was particularly useful in helping team members understand the quality advantages offered by U.S. corn, reports Adel Yusupov, USGC regional director for Southeast Asia, who escorted the team. “This was a nice quality assurance for these importers, who tend to gravitate towards Argentine corn. It was also good to see the high quality of DDGS produced,� said Yusupov.
The team members also visited the farm of Nebraska Corn Board Director Dave Nielsen near Lincoln, Neb. For Nielsen, who himself traveled on a previous Council mission to Southeast Asia, the visit was a chance to display the quality of his crop. “The trade team was impressed by the quality on the farm. We grow the best corn in the world here in the United States,� Nielsen affirmed.
Importantly, the Council also facilitated meetings between the Southeast Asian team members, who represented nearly 2.5 million tons (98.4 million bushels) of import requirements, and four Omaha-based trading houses. Yusupov is optimistic that some of these meetings will lead to future sales: “the team members were impressed by what they saw. I have already heard of some business leads during these meetings, and hope for more sales in the future.�