ISA Leaders Talk Turkey in Mexico

ISA farmer leaders spent a day in Puebla visiting with the folks from RYC Company.  USAPEEC's Jose Manuel Samperio was conducting one of the many technical workshops that Illinois soybean checkoff dollars support to educate importers on the quality and availability of new products.  

Following the workshop, Ramon Lozano, RYC director, gave us background on the company and how they have started using more U.S. poultry products to create value-added products.  He talked about his company's goals to reach households with healthy, safe and affordable meals.  

RYC hosted our lunch.  They were promoting "trompollo;" a chicken version of the very common pastor taco traditionally made with pork and a new product they developed utilizing the turkey leg meat in a deep fried tortilla and a traditional mole'.

Our last plant tour was of the TIF plant which is nearly the same as our USDA plant inspection certification. After a very busy couple of days, we were able to see and understand firsthand how our soybean checkoff investment is helping our best customers. 

ISA Leaders Learn in Mexico

ISA supports the efforts of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC).  A group of Illinois soybean farmer leaders are in Mexico to learn more about how soybean checkoff investments are building market demand in Mexico.

Studying U.S. Pork Sales in Mexico

Nicole Boettger, ISA Animal Agriculture Lead

After arrival on Sunday night, we received our briefings.  We learned about the "Build Pork Demand Campaign," about the overall market situation for U.S. pork exports, and the foundational research and basic elements of the USMEF campaign.

  

ISA farmers set out early Monday to see and observe firsthand the target market in Mexico, women ages 25-45, and to understand how much U.S. pork is in the market.  Our first stop was to meet with wholesalers at Calle 7, a traditional wet market.   

 

Next, we followed the pork back to the processing companies of Alimentos EFA and Sigma.  We learned how U.S. pork plays a very important role in the overall makeup of most pork products served in Mexico. We had a great chance to visit with one of owners and he shared his thank you for ISA's support of the Build Pork Demand Campaign.

On our travel, we were able to see one of the many bus stop ads (see photo).  Next we saw traditional retail wet markets, the most utilized by the target market.  Our day wrapped up with stops at the number retailer in Mexico, Chedraui.  We observed a sampling session that was part of the overall campaign strategy.  At Costco, we saw the highest end of the target market's buying habits.  

Reaching the Mexican Target Market

Nicole Boettger, ISA Animal Agriculture Lead

On the next day of our trip, ISA directors learned how USMEF uses ratings and demographics to invest checkoff dollars in pacing media ads for the target market.  We had the opportunity to tour the Azteca studio and see the live TV mention during a popular Mexican morning show.   As nearly everyone in Mexico has a TV, this is very complimentary to our TV commercials and other integrated advertising.

Next we visited with USMEF Chef Max, just after he had finished a seven-minute live radio interview with a popular radio host at "Radio Centro."  Chef Max is not only a trained chef, but also a medical doctor.  He covered the health and benefits of eating pork as part of a healthy diet.

We spent the afternoon switching gears to the USAPEEC portion of the trip with a short briefing from Greg Tyler, USAPEEC vice president of marketing.  We had excellent dialogue with their National Poultry Producers Council, "UNA," where the group not only talked about poultry exports, but also asked one of our top soybean customers about quality and related issues.

The evening was capped off with dinner with our USMEF and USAPEEC staff hosts.  We were joined by some great supporters of agriculture from the U.S. ag trade office and U.S. Embassy.

The group photo includes several ISA representatives, Chad Russell with USMEF and Greg Tyler, Jose Luis Cruz and Alma Lilia de Leon with USAPEEC.  Fabiola McClellan from the ag trade office and Erik Hanson, Adam Branson and Dan Berman from the Embassy.

ISA Hosts Multi-Country Trade Team

ISA hosted on October 11, 2011, a trade team that included representatives from several countries.  The fall harvest tour coordinated by the Illinois Department of Agriculture included team members from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Japan and South Korea.  Individuals on the tour either already purchase Illinois grain or are interested in purchasing Illinois grain for their companies in the near future.

David Headley welcomed the trade team on behalf of ISA, followed by comments from ISA Director Wendell Lutz.  Jim Mackey with the Illinois Department of Agriculture presented the overall goal of the Bureau of Marketing and Promotions Division.  Wendell fielded questions about agriculture and his farming operation during the evening, and several individuals also spoke one-on-one with him.  Each participant gave a brief summary about their companies, what they enjoyed about Illinois and objectives for coming to Illinois.

The evening was great, with dialogue among the participants, an exchange of agriculture ideas and a chance to clear up confusion with regard to agriculture practices.  The team was scheduled for a shipping presentation and a tour of the Chicago Board of Trade.

ISA Hosts Chinese Fall Crop Tour

ISA and several soybean farmers helped welcome the Chinese fall crop tour to Illinois this week.  The 23 individuals on the team represented at least 90 percent of all soybeans purchased for China, and were interested in current soybean markets, futures prices, yield, quality and crop estimates, and farmer marketing plans.

According to Claudia Chong with the American Soybean Association International Marketing (ASA-IM), one of the companies represented imports five million metric tons of soybeans, or about 185 million bushels, and nearly half come from the U.S.  She says China will import about two billion bushels from all countries this year, noting the U.S. produces three billion per year.

Mike Cunningham, ASA director and former ISA director from Bismarck, hosted the team at his farm.  Team members estimated Mike's yields might be 55-57 bushels per acre.  Mike fielded questions about various topics involving the soybean industry. 

The team visited the ISA office in Bloomington.  ISA CEO Craig Ratajczyk and Mark Albertson, director of strategic market development, welcomed the trade team.  They heard a presentation about current markets from Advance Trading.  A lot of good discussion took place around the table over the information presented in the slides.   Mark gave a brief overview of what ISA is doing domestically and globally with soy.  Each member of the team introduced themselves and what company they worked for in China.  From ISA, the team when to ADM in Havana.

At ADM, the team was welcomed by employees who divided the team into two groups. The first group got a first-hand tour of the river terminal outside. They learned about the operations from the time a grain truck arrives until the grain either leaves on a barge headed down river to New Orleans or is trucked to another location. The location manager spoke to the other group about ADM and their operations worldwide.

 

On September 27, ISA hosted a luncheon at the Union League Club in Chicago.  During the luncheon, ISA directors Bill Wykes and Pat Dumoulin spoke about their individual operations. A lot of good discussion took place about all aspects of the soybean industry.

Taiwanese Team in Illinois

ISA welcomed to Illinois a trade team from Taiwan on September 22 and 23.  The group was made up of soybean industry buyers and soybean crushers from throughout Taiwan.  According to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, Taiwan purchases almost 2.5 million metric tons of soybeans per year.  Of those imports, 67 percent come from the U.S., and the rest come mainly from Brazil.  

On September 22, the team travelled to ISA district director Pat Dumoulin’s farm near Hampshire, where they received an overview of the farm and had questions about Illinois soy answered.   After a good discussion, the group toured the farm and Pat explained more about the farm operations.   The team also went into a soybean field to review the current crop.  They saw a lot of four-pod beans in the field, but no five-pod beans were found.  The team was interested in learning about harvesting procedures, crop input applications, tilling used at the farm and other general soybean information. 

The team visited the National Soybean Research Lab (NSRL) on the University of Illinois campus the following day.  Staff discussed the role of NSRL and how soy is used all over the world.