O’Neil traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia; Bangkok, Thailand; and Manila, Philippines to lead the Agri-Business Managing Risk and Profitability from Field to Food trainings. The offerings were held May 22-31. Topics discussed included trading and hedging, future markets and financial management of risk, the outlook on the U.S. soybean crop, value-added soy products and technical analysis.
The overseas trainings presented by USSEC, NCI and the IGP Institute informed attendees about the U.S. soybean market and its market structure. O’Neil said this understanding of the U.S. market is vital for product export.
“Importers of U.S. soy in these countries admitted that they were caught off guard by the big futures price rally of the last six weeks and were anxious to better understand how they could manage the volatility in these markets and protect their processing margins,” O’Neil said.
In addition to global buyers learning about U.S. grains, guest lecturer Frayne Olson, professor at North Dakota State University, said he learned from the participants about their countries as well.
“I learned a lot about the problems they are facing in their respective countries and how they, as buyers, view marketing and price risk management,” Olson said. “I found that the program participants were very interested in learning about price risk management and using the tools and techniques Jay and I discussed.”
