Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) Directors Paul Dahlseng and Keith Schrader recently attended the Southeast Asia Buyers Conference in Cebu, Philippines.
Schrader, who chairs the Council and is a District 8 representative from Nerstrand, Minn., and Dahlseng, a District 4 representative from Starbuck, Minn., also spent two days in Taipei, Taiwan reaching out to customers and buyers.
“We met several groups, including the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) to the Taiwan Vegetable Oil Manufactures Association,” Schrader said. “As we continue to push our Essential Amino Acids (EAA) message, groups like these are important partners.”
Schrader and Dahlseng met up with a group from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, working on a tristate message for EAA.
Schrader said they also met with TaiSun Food and Marketing Co., which is one of the largest crushers in Taiwan.
“James Huang, who has visited Minnesota several times through various programs, said most of TaiSun’s purchases are made out of the Gulf of Mexico due to the protein numbers,” Schrader said. “It’s this type of thinking that we are trying to change. We want them to understand the better bean is the bean that has a high essential amino acid profile.”
At the conference in Cebu, Dahlseng and Schrader served on a panel. Schrader said the conference covered the following topics:
- Markets for corn and soy products
- Ocean transportation
- Sustainability
- Food safety
- Individual SE Asia country market statistics
CHS Inc, and Ag Processing Inc. (AGP) attended the conference as did Long Lake, Minn.-based International Feed.