SSGA to launch European marketing efforts Sept. 15

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The Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) is launching its marketing efforts in Europe on Sept. 15 with the U.S. Identity-Preserved Soya and Specialty Grains Virtual Seminar. This webinar will promote the U.S. container and identity-preserved (IP) traceability system and its benefits to European companies and consumers.

The co-organizer of the event, the Dutch company Bridge2Food, is promoting the event on its website and through social media channels to attract a robust audience of European buyers. SSGA is also working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture offices in Europe to promote the event. Target participants include companies along the soy value chain, from traders and importers, to food processors and ingredient companies, to food producers and retailers. Registration is free so we hope and expect significant participation by European companies interested in high-quality, U.S. IP products.

The seminar will feature three SSGA presentations and a virtual trade show. Two of these presentations will introduce the U.S. IP system and focus on its advantages, including traceability of container-shipped field crops. We will also have a panel discussion with U.S. producers of IP soya and specialty grains.

Concurrent to the presentations and during networking breaks, participants will be able to meet with exhibitors in the virtual trade show. SSGA members can exhibit for free. This will be a great opportunity for SSGA members to introduce themselves to the European market and to make new contacts in this important market.

If your company would like to join us, email Katelyn Engquist to register.

Updates from the experts

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For a recent virtual trade show, Specialty Grains Lead Dave Miller and Strategic Adviser for Trade and Transportation Bruce Abbe provided video updates on their respective areas of expertise. Listen to their updates below.

Specialty Grains action team setting direction, fostering connections

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By Dave Miller, specialty grains consultant

In the past three months, the Specialty Grains action team has taken a two-fold approach to adding value to Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) members.

First, the action team continues to refine its strategic approach. With more than 20 different specialty crops, driving insights about the combination of crops and markets that represent the greatest opportunity has been a focus for the team.

And, while that important work is taking place, the team is already reaching out to industry associations representing the needs of potential customers to foster relationships.

Recently, the Specialty Grains action team met with the Whole Grains Council (WGC) and the American Society of Baking Executives (ASBE) to explore collaboration opportunities. While the WGC is largely a consumer-focused organization dedicated to the inclusion of more whole grains in consumer diets, its membership is rich with companies that either are or should be customers of SSGA member companies. In meeting with the WGC, it became clear that traceability is important to many of their member companies as they look to continue to add value to their consumer base. In the near future, SSGA will author a blog post on the WGC website about the importance of traceability to WGC members. The organizations will also look to partner on future trade events.

The introduction to ASBE served as an initial entry point to the vast domestic and international baking industry. ASBE represents companies involved in wholesale and in-store baked goods and is the host of the annual BakeryTech trade show. The action team is currently evaluating attendance of that show among several others. While many members of ASBE may be more commodity driven, a portion of its membership is highly focused on specialty, value-added products perfect for the ingredients created by SSGA. The meeting also pointed SSGA to another trade organization highly focused on specialty products, the Bread Bakers Guild of America.

At the same time as these outreach efforts are taking place, the action team is refining its approach to representing the needs of specialty grain members. That includes evaluation of market demand potential by grain and country, as well as building an event attendance plan, highlighting trade shows and conferences that focus on customer channels and markets and where SSGA will appear to network on behalf of members.

Organic Outlook: Corn, wheat face supply glut; soy market expected to remain strong

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Larger-than-expected beginning stocks and more harvested acres have placed organic corn and wheat on a bearish trend over the 2019/20 market year, according to the new Mercaris Organic Commodity Outlook. Meanwhile, strong demand and lower imports have provided support to organic soybeans markets.

Mercaris, the nation’s leading market data service and online trading platform for organic, non-GMO and certified agricultural commodities, today released its spring outlook.

Despite poor planting and harvest conditions in 2019, additional certified corn and wheat farms helped push harvests above previous estimates. In addition, corn imports rose sharply at the end of the 2018/19 market year, 12% above projections.

“Feed-grade organic corn prices have experienced a lot of pressure since last August, as harvest exceeded the industry’s expectation,” said Ryan Koory, Director of Economics for Mercaris. “With buyers expecting tighter 2019/20 supplies, a lot of organic corn was imported and stored at the end of 2018/19 putting corn markets in a perpetually long supply position this year.”

For organic soybeans, a collapse in imports from China and a reduction from Canada and the Black Sea Region point to supply constraints and higher prices.

“With China and the Black Sea Region sending less organic soybean meal to the U.S., domestic organic soybean crush has picked up the slack, tightening the overall U.S. soybean supply situation,” Koory said. “We may see this pressure back off this fall if we experience a good organic soybean harvest. But, through the remainder of 2019/20 organic soybean prices look firmly supported.”

Additional findings from today’s report include:

  • U.S. organic corn production is estimated at 39.7 million bushels for 2019/20, up 9% from the previous outlook but still down 4% year-over-year.
  • Organic soybean production is estimated at 7.6 million bushels, also up 9% from the previous outlook, but down 4% year-over-year.
  • Organic feed demand is projected at 31 million bushels, with organic wheat and organic corn silage making up a growing percentage of overall feed.
  • Organic wheat production saw a 15% year-over-year increase in 2019 at 20 million bushels, driven mostly by an increase in acres in the High Plains.

Today’s report includes additional data and commentary on expected yields, use, prices and more for organic commodities. For more information and to purchase a copy of the report, visit Mercaris. There will be a webinar on April 30 at 10:30 a.m. CT to cover these findings for those who purchase the report.

For information about COVID-19-related risks to organic markets, a free Mercaris report is also available here.

Traceability: The IP advantage

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By Eugene Philhower

Eugene Philhower, SSGA Technical Adviser for Europe

In these days of polarization on just about every topic, there is at least one concept that those of us in the food and farming sectors should all agree upon — that traceability means “back to the farm.” As an identity-preserved (IP) technical adviser for the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) covering Europe, one of my roles is to help enable increased exports by communicating about the benefits of IP crops and their traceability.

With the ever-increasing interest from consumers in the U.S. and Europe to “know where our food comes from,” the pressure is on every stop along the food value chain to provide “back-to-the-farm-level” information for more and more products, particularly for traditional bulk commodities like soy. If a food product cannot currently be traced back to the farm or farms from where the raw materials came from, it will be expected to do so in some form in the not too distant future.

Here in Europe, there is another factor that needs to be considered. The images of the burning rainforest in Brazil last fall have rallied governments, particularly in Northern Europe and the European Commission, to take visible action on deforestation. This is not new as environmental groups and organizations such as the Consumer Goods Forum have long called for decisive actions on deforestation. However, with broader and more governments actions, the momentum is building.

For example, earlier this year, the seven signature countries of the 2015 Amsterdam Declaration issued a statement on conversion-free soya, calling for national action plans to ensure that “100 percent of our (countries’) soya consumption is produced according to the law and in a way that protects forests and valuable native vegetation (deforestation and conversion free).” It is interesting to note that the commitment is not just limited to deforestation but includes the prohibition of conversion of valuable native vegetation to crop production.

Just last week, the German government adopted guidelines for the promotion of deforestation-free supply chains. In its guidelines, the government commits to promote the cultivation of European Union (EU) and locally produced protein. While details are vague, the German government also intends to increase and improve information of consumers and support more uniform and more stringent approaches at EU level.

Additional sources of plant protein are in demand in Europe as manufacturers experiment with new products. According to Bridge2Food, European companies are looking for long term sources of supply to build out food production lines, and some of them for re-export to Asia. Working in the high-end manufacture means traceability.  There is a new government commitment to action and that connects deforestation, choosing a source for imports, and the promotion of local protein.

Back to traceability, the current grain marketing infrastructure in the U.S. has developed on the handling of bulk commodities. The system efficiently manages both a large volume and a large number of products. Over time, this has allowed for efficiencies and lower costs all along the value chain. The foundation of the U.S. position as the number one ag exporting country is this infrastructure. For bulk commodities, the county elevator serves as close to the farm as economically and physically possible and there are very good reasons for this. Under the current system, starting at the local elevator, products are mixed and processed at the individual steps along the way. As a result, each step only needs information on the product as delivered from the previous step. With this “one step forward, one step back” approach, along with appropriate testing and quality inspections, each step along the way has the responsibility to ensure quality and safety standards are met.

In recent years, back-to-the-farm-level traceability has become routine for certain commodities and products. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations require comprehensive traceability in meat due to concerns on animal health and food safety while trade in organic products relies on segregation and certification starting at the farm level.

Whether consumers are motivated out of concerns for the tropical rainforests and habitat destruction or in the interest in supporting “local” production, more and more consumers, and the competitive retail sector, will be demanding to know where all of its products are produced. Back to the farm traceability is a fundamental aspect of the SSGA IP effort that promotes the origin of products and the U.S. is in a great position to respond to these growing demands.

FEFAC concerned about feed supply issues

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By Arvin Donley for World Grain

EU food and feed industry representatives are expressing concerns to the European Commission about enacting social distancing measures designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) without disrupting the food and feed supply chains.

The global COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 200,000 people and killed more than 7,000, has spread quickly through Western Europe in the last two weeks. Italy, Germany and France are among the countries hit hardest by the virus.

While the groups acknowledged the need to strictly comply with EU and national instructions to prevent further dissemination of the virus among its employees, suppliers and customers, they emphasized that it was important to ensure that the food and feed supply chains remain open.

The European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) called for the inclusion of feed next to food in the list of essential goods mentioned in the EU Commission Guidelines on Border Management published March 17.

“Farm animals must be fed every day in order to provide key food products consumed by the population and to ensure animal health and welfare,” FEFAC said. “Some Member States, like Spain, Italy and Belgium, have already included feed supplies on their list of essential goods, but we need a harmonized approach at EU level.”

In addition, the groups called on the EU and national authorities to take swift action to ensure that all food and feed, even if not perishable, can be transported across the EU unhindered as long as all required health safety measures are respected.

They said the decision to close the EU outside borders that was taken on March 17 to contain the propagation of the virus should not apply to vessels bringing in the food and feed raw materials that are in short supply in the EU — again, as long as they take every necessary health measure to ensure the health of all actors in the food and feed supply chain.

“As traders of agri commodities, our mission is to ensure the supply of the raw materials and ingredients that are needed by farmers, the food sector and the feed industry for direct use and further processing,” said Philippe Mitko, president of COCERAL. “We source from European producers, moving agri goods across the EU and exporting the surplus, but we also import the raw materials for which the EU is in deficit.

“We have been watching disruptions in the food and feed supply chain increasing in the last few days and are very concerned about future developments as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread. The EU needs to protect the health of all operators in the chain so that they continue to ensure the uninterrupted supply of food and feed.”

Nick Major, president of FEFAC,  said he believes the EU can achieve both goals of keeping its citizen safe from the virus while keeping the food and feed chain flowing.

“The EU feed industry fully accepts the need for strict containment policies at EU and Member States level to slow down the infectious COVID-19 cycle,” Major said. “Our priority and key mission are to protect animal health and welfare of farm animals and food supply chains for milk, meat, eggs to consumers during the COVID-19 crisis. We therefore urge the EU Commission to recognize the status of feed as essential goods in the EU COVID-19 guidelines, which is crucial to uphold the functioning of the single market for feedstuffs to prevent supply chain disruptions and shortages of essential nutrients to the EU farm animal population.”

SSGA launches specialty grains action team

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The Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) team often refers to the organization’s main priorities as the “three legs on a stool.” Since SSGA’s inception in 2019, transportation and soya are the two stool legs that have received more attention, but with the launch of the Specialty Grains (SG) action team, that will no longer be the case. SG action team members recently met to set its core priorities and activities for the upcoming year.

This action team will focus on all specialty crops, their products and derivatives. This, of course, is not a short list. With many organizations focusing on grains, including the U.S. Grains Council, U.S. Dry Bean Council, Ameriflax, and more, SSGA will have plenty of collaborators in this realm.

“The purpose of the action team is to focus on containerized shipments of identity-preserved (IP) grains,” says SG action team chair Sheila Sauve. “With many potential partners, we will have our work cut out for us to develop relationships and work with these groups to bolster the entire industry.”

A few of the markets identified as priority for this action team include Southeast Asia, North Asia and Europe. Hybrid rye and grains for brewing and distillation are some priority crops.

SSGA staff member David Miller has been tasked with developing programming and events for this action team. To assist in increasing exports of IP specialty grains, possible future activities include web calls with prospective customers in key markets, a healthy food ingredients conference, trade missions and other overseas activities. Contact Miller by email to participate in the action team.

“There is an abundance of U.S.-grown specialty grains that have great potential in overseas markets,” Sauve says. “This action team looks forward to advancing and communicating the great value of IP field crops. Traceability is so important in specialty grains and customers want assurances of quality.”

Minnesota Crop Improvement Association draws the way forward with identity-preserved practices

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By Eric Wenberg, executive director

On Jan. 8 in Fergus Falls, Minn., I had the pleasure of attending the 117th meeting of the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association (MCIA). MCIA is how identity-preserved (IP) field crops start, with solid approaches to seed use, farming practices and on-farm certification processes, importantly driven by conversations between what’s achievable on the farm for merchandisers marketing soya and specialty grains.

MCIA Chief Executive Officer Fawad Shah is a strong, contributing member association leader at Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA), pointing the way ahead. It’s great to have them as a partner. The group was concerned about quality from the 2019 crops, with some farms having left fields unharvested. The concern for the future of farming was real, but the rural communities had survived another year. There was optimism in the room for the future if 2020 weather will cooperate. “First, start with the seed,” was the common theme from the meetings and awards.

Many attendees produce seed for their neighbor and propagate the non-GMO seeds for food variety field crops, then grow successor generation crops with their neighbor customers. Some noted lots of calls about trying to get growing plans in place, and noted that the lower Chicago Board of Trade prices meant a concurrent lower premium because companies are setting that, not with an absolute value, but dependent on the overall value of the crop. MCIA committees set new, updated standards and forecast future tweaks to the seed standards in line with the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA).

Leaders from the University of Minnesota Forever Green Initiative discussed supply chain development for Kernza®. The group and its supply chain developer, Colin Cureton, work in a building with the impressive name and auspicious crop development goals of Norman Borlaug. Kernza is a wheat-like grain and the first commercially viable perennial grain and can be used for cooking, baking, brewing, distilling and co-products. It has a deep, dense root system and produces both grain and forage over three to four years. There are just 2,000 acres of the crop worldwide, but much of that is grown in Minnesota. Kernza, once produced, is in high demand with businesses competing to purchase it. While consumers like the quality of new grains, the difficulty is to scale up production. In a decade you could be selling this one to high-end users if the numbers work. The agronomics certainly do. SSGA is working on specialty grains and markets, helping members find crops to sell and providing research in the market.

I also had the opportunity to network and catch up with some SSGA members at the meeting including Friedrich seeds, Albert Lea Seed, Northern Crops Institute, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Soyko International and Richland IFC. Thanks, MCIA, for a great meeting and supporting SSGA. Keep up the good work.

 

Thailand government reconsiders ban of chemical use

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The Thailand National Hazardous Substance Committee (NHSC) has overturned their earlier decision to ban three agricultural chemicals. The Oct. 22 decision to classify glyphosate, paraquat and chlorpyrifos as Category 4 substances was to start Dec. 1. This classification would have banned the chemicals from production, possession, importation and exportation and would require a zero maximum residue level (MRL) applied to possible exposure.

The Nov. 27 decision keeps glyphosate as a Category 3 substance (restricted use and sales), while a classification of paraquat and chlorpyrifos as Category 4 substances will become effective June 1, 2020.

Recently, Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) member Rob Prather of Global Processing, traveled to Southeast Asia to meet with buyers and learn more about the Thai ban. Read that story here.

SSGA looks forward to discussing this issue at the annual meeting Tuesday.

SSGA talks transportation, research on Michigan tour

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With more than 300 commodities grown, Michigan boasts diverse agriculture, so it’s understandable why staff from the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) wanted to introduce the organization to the agricultural industry in the state.

SSGA Executive Director Eric Wenberg met with the agribusiness industry in Michigan Oct. 23-25 to learn more about Michigan’s identity-preserved (IP) industry and to see how SSGA can work for its member across the nation.

SSGA kicked off its trip at Zeeland Farm Services, Inc. (ZFS), in Zeeland, Mich., where ZFS officials shared transportation hurdles they’re facing. Among their concerns was the perception that heavy trucks damage the roads more than lighter trucks.

In Michigan, the allowable truck weight limit is 164,000 pounds on an 11-axel truck, which averages 14,900 pounds per axle. The federal limit of an 80,000-pound truck with 5 axels equals 16,000 pounds per axle. Despite the heavier federal allowance, neighboring states are adapting to Michigan’s rule to alleviate stress on roadways and increase efficiency by using fewer trucks, drivers and fuel. ZFS also shared other transportation concerns such as not being able to transport a fully loaded, 40-foot container to Chicago because of weight limits when driving between states.

“Visiting member companies like ZFS helps bring more awareness to issues they’re facing when growing, brokering and transporting identity-preserved crops across America,” says SSGA Executive Director Eric Wenberg. “By listening to our members, SSGA can bring these issues to the forefront and help create a better environment for the entire IP industry.”

Another stop for SSGA staff was to the Michigan State University agronomy farm to learn about soybean breeder Dr. Dechun Wang’s research. Wang considers the 11,000 non-GMO soybean breeding lines he planted in 2019 like his children and relayed the importance of support for public research breeding programs.

“Both public and private breeding programs are vital to the success of crops like soybeans,” Wang says.  “Public programs like the one at MSU ensures that growers have unbiased research solutions to an ever-changing agricultural climate.”

SSGA also met with new Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee director Janna Frisk, and with Michigan Agricultural Commissioner Gary McDowell, to discuss the issues Michigan faces with identity preserved crops, practices, and shipping.

Soybeans are the Michigan’s top food export and 12 percent of all soybeans grown are IP. Michigan also leads the nation in production of the dry edible bean classes of black, cranberry, navy and small, red beans.