By Bruce Abbe, strategic advisor for trade and transportation

The Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) took part in two significant trade events in North Asia over the last two weeks hosted by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC). SSGA attended the Taiwan U.S. Soy Outlook Conference and 50th anniversary celebration of the American Soybean Association’s (ASA) presence in Taiwan in Taipei, Nov. 14-15. SSGA also exhibited at the Japan Soy Buyers Outlook Conference in Tokyo Nov. 18 -19.

Japan Food Soybean Trade Show
SSGA unveiled a new exhibit at the Japan event’s trade show that promotes the identity-preserved (IP) handling systems of SSGA member companies for sourcing soybeans and food grain products for international customers, as well as the organization’s trade referral services.

The trade show also featured several participating U.S. food soybean exporting companies, including SSGA members Bluegrass Farms of Ohio, Pipeline Foods, Scoular, Star of the West, and Stonebridge. The exporters also held one-on-one meetings with buyers during their Japan visits to explore contracts and commitments for the 2020 growing season.

Japan Soy Outlook Conference
U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) North Asia Regional Director Roz Leeck and U.S. Embassy Agricultural Trade Office Deputy Director Barrett Bumpas greeted attendees at the Soy Outlook Conference. Leeck also gave the 2019 U.S. Soybean Production Quality Report, noting projections for a decline in production due to late planting and harvesting conditions, but assured buyers that reports across U.S. production regions point to continued high quality of the 2019 crop.

Masanori Natsuka from the Japan Ministry of Agriculture provided the Japan Soybean Supply and Demand report.

Nancy Kavazanjian, a director on the United Soybean Board (USB) and a non-GMO food soybean producer from Wisconsin, presented the U.S. Non-GMO Soybeans Update: Production Growing Conditions and 2020 Planting Intentions report. Kavazanjian will be a featured speaker at SSGA’s upcoming annual meeting in Minneapolis on Dec. 3.

Attendees also heard reports on U.S. soy sustainability, and the potential impact the 2020 Japan Summer Olympics will have on trade and logistics next year. ASA president Davie Stephens emphasized the commitment of U.S. farmers to free trade and continuing to be reliable suppliers to international customers.

SSGA meets with Foreign Agricultural Service and Japan Consumer Affairs Agency on new labeling law
While in Japan, Bruce Abbe, SSGA strategic advisor for trade and transportation and consultant Hoa Huynh, a recent USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) retiree, met with officials of the USDA FAS Office of Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Abbe and Huynh, along with FAS officials, also met with the Japanese government’s Consumer Affairs Agency on new Non-GMO product labeling regulations that were approved earlier this year and will take full effect in April of 2023. Under the new rules there will be zero tolerance for any unintended GMO content for food products to be labeled “Non-GMO” or with no genetic engineered content.

SSGA exporter members will want to track implementation developments for this new labeling regime in the coming months. More in-depth coverage will be included in the upcoming issue of SSGA Member News Update next week.

Taiwan U.S. Soy Outlook Conference and ASA’s 50^th Anniversary in Taiwan
Taiwan is the world’s 20th largest economy, with a population of 23 million people, large high technology industries, a vibrant democracy and strong ties to the U.S. in trade and policy.

USDA FAS Associate Administrator Clay Hamilton traveled from Washington, D.C., to take part in the celebration of ASA International Marketing’s 50^th anniversary of having an office in Taiwan.   Mark Petry, chief of the Agricultural Trade Office at the American Institute of Taiwan (the equivalent in Taiwan of a U.S. Embassy), and Deputy Director Lucas Blaustein, gave U.S. attendees reports on the Taiwan market, which has consistently ranked among the top importers of U.S. agriculture goods.

ASA Director Stan Born, an Illinois soybean farmer, gave a presentation on the 2019 U.S. soybean production year and supply outlook, and emphasized U.S. soybean growers’ commitment to continue to serve their global customers. Guy Allen, senior agricultural economist at the IGP Institute at Kansas State University, gave the global soy supply and demand report. A host of U.S. farmer representatives were on hand for the festivities.

USSEC Senior Director Paul Burke presented the 2019 U.S. Soybean Quality Survey results.  While U.S. crops were generally four weeks behind normal schedule, and planting problems led to reduced production, Burke noted again that quality reports on the 2019 crop were good across the country.

U.S. exporters, including SSGA member International Feed also participated and held one-on-one meetings with buyers. SSGA had an exhibit booth that provided information on SSGA’s trade referral service to Taiwanese buyers in attendance.

Last week, Thailand announced it will ban the herbicide glyphosate effective Dec. 1. In a letter to Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, USDA Undersecretary Ted McKinney urged a focus on “scientific evidence,” warning that a glyphosate ban would “severely impact Thailand’s imports of agricultural commodities such as soybeans and wheat.”

In 2018, the U.S. exported $2.1 billion in agricultural products to Thailand. Soybeans are the largest U.S. agricultural commodity exported to Thailand, equating to $593 million in 2018, primarily for animal feed. SSGA members ship soybeans for tofu, and specialty grains such as rye hybrids. All these crops move in containers with U.S. identity preserved practices.

“Moving grains and oilseeds to Thailand is a business, and specialty field crops are sold by small businesses who need support to be informed about these changes and react to them,” says SSGA Executive Director Eric Wenberg. “It’s SSGA’s job to make sure our members have the information they need to educate their buyers about what’s happening in the market.”

SSGA is making proactive moves to ensure strong relations continue with its trading partners. Rob Prather, an SSGA member and chief strategic ambassador for Iowa-based Global Processing, is traveling to Southeast Asia in November to meet with several buyers.

“We’re hoping to get the story behind what’s going on,” says Prather, who holds more than a decade of experience connecting growers with international buyers.

Wenberg helped connect Prather with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service office in Bangkok, and provided Prather with the necessary background information to represent himself and the industry.

“Eric wants us to be an organization of quick action, an action of opportunity,” says Prather, who serves on SSGA’s food grade soya action team. “Both countries addressed this last week and now we’re going to address it personally with FAS in Thailand, which is a huge opportunity.”

Prather has traveled several times to Southeast Asia previously, but this will be his first visit as an SSGA member. He says the connections brought forth from his SSGA membership are paying dividends.

“It gives us another facet to what we can do. As SSGA members, now we can interface directly with FAS — we couldn’t do that before,” he says. “If I have a problem with shipping to Thailand, I don’t have a solution for it, but because of SSGA now I do. I feel like I can get more of a quicker solution to help not only myself and my company, but other people and SSGA members who are doing the same thing.”

Prather says his SSGA membership allows him to connect more directly with Southeast Asia on the specific issues he cares about and, by extension, a firmer grasp of trade relations with Thailand when he returns home.

“This shows that we’re fairly connected and we’re not starting from scratch,” he says. “We’re utilizing our knowledge base in an efficient and effective way.”

While the United States faces the loss of potential Thai sales, Thailand has problems with its sales to the United States, adding to trade tensions between the countries. Recently, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a statement halting $1.3 billion in trade preferences for Thailand, citing labor rights concerns.

“This is another example of circumstances where trade concerns outside agriculture can complicate finding solutions,” Wenberg says. “We hope the Thai government and the United States can work together to solve each other’s trade concerns in a way that doesn’t stop our exports.”