Three USGC International Staff Recognized For Five Years Of Service

Relationships are an essential component of enabling trade, and the global staff of the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) is on the frontlines of building and maintaining those links between international customers and U.S. farmers and agribusinesses.

Three of the Council’s internationally-based staff were recognized for five years of service during the organization’s 17th International Marketing Conference and 60th Annual Membership Meeting recently in Tampa, Florida – Young Jin Lee, administrative manager for South Korea; Junyang Jiang, assistant director for China; and Manuel Sanchez, regional director for Southeast Asia.

Young Jin Lee is celebrating a second five-year milestone working with the Council – having served as secretary in the Council’s South Korea office from 1993 to 1999 before shifting her work to other companies and re-joining the Council in 2014.

“I have enjoyed meeting new people from both the U.S. and Korean industries and learning new ways the Council’s members are contributing to global trade,” Lee said.

Lee has expanded her work over the last five years to include new projects related to dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS), bioethanol and food barley. Barley is a niche market in South Korea, and Lee has worked closely with the beer industry, the health food industry and U.S. barley suppliers to make the program a success.

“Her efforts have helped the U.S. Grains Council maintain a good reputation in the feed industry, corn processing industry and with fuel ethanol stakeholders in South Korea,” said Haksoo Kim, USGC director in South Korea. “She also has an excellent ability to maintain good relationships with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA’s FAS), U.S. suppliers, farmers and traders, biotech seed developers and related organizations and enjoys new challenges to make USGC’s business more successful and effective.”

Junyang Jiang has also been a linchpin in maintaining the Council’s relationships with buyers as trade volumes to China have ebbed and flowed over the last five years. Like Lee, Jiang was well familiar with the Council’s work before he joined the organization in 2014, having worked for the USDA’s FAS covering commodity reporting for coarse grains, wheat, rice, sugar and biofuels. As part of this position, he regularly joined the Council’s annual crop tour – learning about the organization from a customer perspective.

“This was my favorite travel at that time as I could learn a lot from those field trips by talking to farmers, traders and local grain dealers,” Jiang said. “The Council’s work now provides me opportunities working with all kinds of interesting people in different sectors, researchers and officials, so you will always learn more – or know more – during your work.”

As part of his continual passion for learning, Jiang’s work has shifted from a coarse grains focus to ethanol promotion. One of his highlights working for the Council was the fifth U.S.-China Biofuel Forum that was conducted in Washington, D.C., in November 2017 – the first time the Council helped to sponsor this event and an important platform for government-to-government and industry-to-industry interaction.

“Junyang has a passion for his work at the Council and a desire to help China clear up their air and achieve an E10 mandate,” said Ryan LeGrand, USGC president and chief executive officer. “He has stayed working to maintain our business contacts during tough times with our trade relationship with China, working to ensure they are ready to buy U.S. coarse grains, co-products and ethanol as relations improve.”

Being passionate and proactively involved in market development are also characteristics of Manuel Sanchez, who first joined the Council as a manager of global trade, where he provided trade servicing expertise and strengthened the Council’s relationship with domestic stakeholders and customers around the globe.

“It was clear early on that Manuel’s trade knowledge was a perfect fit for the job,” LeGrand said. “He represented the Council extremely well in his global travels promoting U.S. grains, educating buyers on our quality and seeking solutions in markets.”

Sanchez and his family moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in early 2017 so he could serve in a new position – assistant director for Southeast Asia. He was subsequently promoted to the regional director for Southeast Asia later that year, where he now manages all trade, technical and policy factors relevant to building and maintaining the market for U.S. coarse grains and co-products for the countries stretching from Myanmar to New Zealand.

“I enjoy the interaction with buyers from all over the world,” Sanchez said. “Sharing the insights of our valuable commodities and promoting the abundant, high-quality supply of U.S. coarse grains, co-products and ethanol – it all boils down to trade servicing! But what I enjoy most about my work at the Council is the ability to create relationships with customers that will last a lifetime.”

Please join in celebrating these three global staff members as they mark five years of developing markets, enabling trade and improving lives with the U.S. Grains Council!