MANHATTAN, KANSAS, U.S. – Developing and progressing partnerships with foreign countries is one of the goals the faculty and staff at the IGP Institute work toward to achieve. The Kansas State University (KSU) IGP Institute recently teamed up with the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) to offer a China Contracting Workshop held Oct. 16–17.

The two-day training included seven participants from China, representing several top sorghum-purchasing companies. The participants who attended the course not only listened to presentations by faculty and staff at KSU and engaged in several discussions to better understand the topics in the course, but also toured a Kansas sorghum farm.

“One part I really liked is that I was able to go to a farm and directly talk with a farmer to get direct information about the grains,” said Silin Luo, assistant manager in exports and imports at Shenzhen Four Gardener Grain Co., Ltd in Shenzhen, China. “I was also able to learn about the different contract terms that I may not have known before the course.”

As her company’s grain purchaser, Luo said she now has increased her knowledge about U.S. crops and can read through the contract details to avoid problems in making buying decisions.

The workshop focused on a range of topics, including the U.S. grain production and marketing system, USDA grain standards, the U.S. export grain inspection system, establishing a proper contract, international grain trade rules, price risk management, and futures and options hedging.

“They are all significant buyers in the workshop who are interested in U.S. sorghum and want to purchase more,” said Jay O’Neil, senior agricultural economist and lead course instructor. “Through this workshop we were able to talk about the market and contracting topics between China and the U.S.”

O’Neil said the workshop objective was to help Chinese sorghum buyers understand the contracting methods and discuss the U.S. markets, especially in the vessel- and container-loading systems.