Latin American Learning Opportunity

ISA hosted a dinner with a Latin American trade team attending INTSOY at the University of Illinois on June 8, 2011.  ISA Director Dan Farney from Morton attended the dinner, along with new ISA trade team coordinators Stu Ellis and David Headley.  Countries represented at the dinner included Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Dominican Republic.

Before dinner, each participant gave an intro with a question and answer about their company.  It was a good time of learning more about each person and their company. 

U.S. soybean exports to Latin American markets last year totaled 4 million metric tons, while U.S. soybean oil accounted for 50 percent of the market.  In Mexico alone, 3.5 million metric tons of soybeans were imported.  Soybean oil exported to Mexico was 740,000 metric tons.

Mexico has a geographic advantage over other countries for two reasons; the system links together at border crossings and the Port of New Orleans is very close to Mexico.  More than 25 soybean crushing plants are located in Mexico along with almost 30 soybean oil refineries.  

 

The soyfoods industry in Latin America is growing annually, with different companies introducing and expanding soy throughout the region.  Annual sales of U.S. soymilk were $1.5 billion last year. The market does not include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay or Uruguay.

The conversations continued until we were kindly asked to leave the restaurant at closing at 11:00 p.m.  Several people went to another establishment to continue the discussions.