Dalrymple announces soybean sales to Korea
Here's the press release from the state of North Dakota about the big announcement about soy food exports to South Korea.
AGRIBUSINESSES SIGN MAJOR EXPORT SALES CONTRACT
FARGO, N.D. – Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple today announced that three local companies are parties to major contracts to supply 2009 food-grade soybeans to South Korean soy food importers.
The purchase agreements call for SB&B Foods of Casselton, Brushvale Seed of Wahpeton-Breckenridge, SunOpta of Moorhead and Wisconsin-based DeLong Company to export about 275,000 bushels of identity preserved soybeans to members of the Korean Federation of Soybean-Curd Industry Cooperatives (KFSCIC). The federation represents 12 Korean tofu-processing cooperatives. The sales are valued at about $5 million.
“Last year, Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple led a trade mission to Korea that forged new and productive relationships for our soybean industry,” said Gov. John Hoeven. “We’re excited about today’s agreement and want to congratulation our soybean producers, the state and national soybean associations, our new Korean trade partners, and our North Dakota Trade Office for their energy and innovation.”
“These agreements are a testament to the companies that are supplying these value-added foods and are part of our larger effort in North Dakota to expand our global reach,” said Dalrymple. “These companies exemplify the drive that generates our state’s success in the international marketplace.”
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The agreements also represent a move forward in U.S.-South Korea trade relations as it is the first major purchase of identity preserved soybeans by the South Korea’s private soy food industry. For the first time, Agro and Fishery Trade Corp., South Korea’s state-run trading agency, has allocated part of its 2009 import quota to the cooperative of privately held food companies. Identity preserved crops bring a premium price because they are grown under stringent protocols and can be tracked from the field to consumers’ plates.
“Two North Dakota Trade Office projects last year were a stepping stone to help initiate a change in South Korea imports which resulted in the contracts,” said Say Young Jo, the American Soybean Association’s country director in Seoul, Korea.
In March 2008, Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple led the Trade Office’s first ever trade mission to South Korea. Among the delegates were representatives from North Dakota’s food-grade soybean companies. With support from the American Soybean Association and the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, the three local food-grade soybean companies began business talks with members of the KFSCIC.
In September 2008, the Trade Office followed up on the mission by hosting 16 South Korean food company executives, including FSCIC Chairman Seon Youn Choi and Nam Hee Jun, president of FSCIC member company Incheon & Gyeonggi, who returned to North Dakota Wednesday to finalize the purchase agreements.
During their visit to North Dakota last year, the food company executives toured local soybean processing plants, they learned about North Dakota’s soybean production and quality advantages and met with local food-grade soybean producers. The “reverse trade mission” was supported by the American Soybean Association, the United Soybean Board, the Northern Food-Grade Soybean Association, the North Dakota Soybean Council, the North Dakota Department of Agriculture and the Northern Crops Institute.
“These companies are succeeding because they are dedicated to providing quality products and because they are willing to go the distance to grow their business,” Trade Office Executive Director Susan Geib said.
South Korea has a $1 trillion economy and 49 million consumers. It is the United States’ 7th largest trading partner and the 5th largest market for U.S. agricultural products.
A trade agreement reached between the United States and South Korea on June 30, 2007 awaits final approval by Congress. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the trade agreement would reduce tariffs and tariff-rate quotas, generating an additional $10 billion in U.S. exports to South Korea. Under the trade agreement two-thirds of South Korea’s agricultural imports from the United States would become duty free.
Posted by: mpates on 7/1/2009 at 2:39 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Will ND 'prevent plant' hit 3M? 4M?
One of the interesting questions floating around the halls of the National Sunflower Association summer seminar in Alexandria this week was whether it could possibly be true -- a 3 million-acre prevent-plant scenario in North Dakota this year?
A 4 million acre situation?
Jim Wiesemeyer, the featured speaker on Washington ag politics, says his conversations indicated it could hit 4 million. If true, that'd be a full 1 million acres more than the situation in 1997, when 3 million acres were innundated, according to the USDA's Risk Management Agency figures. Other knowledgeable people have suggested the figure might be 15 percent of the state's acres.
But others at the meeting weren't so sure. They said if the figure is 15 percent, that would be largely in eastern North Dakota, so now we're talking about a concentration of unplanted acres of 30 percent there. Could that be true? Maybe, say some of the people who have been in the New Rockford area, are people in the Cando area where the drills were silent this year.
Me? I'd expect it's closer to 3 million acres. It is always my impression that these figures are more extreme when people are kind of looking for this damage. They don't see anything else, and they don't see it when farmers follow with a later-season crop. (You get the same kind of reporting about newspapers -- they "only print bad news," say the critics, possibly because that's what critics notice and read.)
One lender, attending the Farm Credit Services AgCountry staff/board retreat, also at the Arrowwood Resort, said it makes for interesting speculation, and it could have big impacts for hard-hit communities because of the market for inputs, but the bottom line won't be known until early August, when the government reports are in.
Posted by: mpates on 6/25/2009 at 6:49 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
National Sunflower Association looks ahead
New technology is the watchword at the National Sunflower Association annual summer seminar at the Arrowwod Resort and Conference Center at Alexandria, Minn., this week. Above is Phil Gibson, seed treatment production manager for Bayer CropScience, showing off the customized room key for the seminar. The keys advertises his company's new "Idol" seed treatment system, which will be available for the 2010 to control downy mildew, among other things.
As always, the NSA event was a Who's Who of the nation's sunflower industry. Among the topics were new equipment for the USDA's Agricultural Research Service sunflower scientists in Fargo, the role of genome mapping to level the playing field between sunflowers and other crops (especially corn and soybeans), the particular problems of confection sunflowers, and the general short stocks of oilseeds (especially soybeans) in the world.
Tom Mielke, editor of Oil World, told those attending that he sees demand continuing strong for vegetable oils, while the market for meal will generally weaken. Check out the full story on this in Agweek.
Posted by: mpates on 6/24/2009 at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Horvath named Sugar Man of the Year
Congratulations to James Horvath, retired president and chief executive officer of American Crystal Sugar Co., was named Dyer Memorial Award's Sugar Man of the Year 2008. Horvath is only the third Red River Valley figure to achieve the title -- the industry's top award. Horvath's award was presented May 7 at the Yale Club in New York City.
Started in 1958, the Dyer award earlier was given to Red River Valley sugar co-op visionary Al Bloomquist, Moorhead, Minn., in 1977, and to Charlie Shamel, a former Crystal president, in 1997.
In 1985, Horvath joined the American Crystal Sugar Co. as the Vice President of Finance, a position he held until 1994 when he became the company’s Vice President for Joint Ventures. In that capacity, he was the Chief Operating Officer of ProGold, LLC, a joint venture with the Golden Growers Cooperative, operating a corn wet milling plant near Wahpeton, N.D. In 1996, he was named American Crystal’s Chief Financial Officer.
In 1998, he became the President and Chief Executive Officer of American Crystal and served in that capacity until he retired in 2007, completing the longest tenure as the head of the Cooperative since it was founded in 1973.
Horvath, 63, and his wife, Carol, have retired to live at Fountain Hills, Ariz. He continued to stay active in the U.S./Mexico trade issues until its final report was issued in March of 2008. Since then, he's focused on grandchildren, trips and "enjoying life."
Posted by: mpates on 6/17/2009 at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Schott is heading toward NCGA leadership
North Dakota corn growers should be happy about the news that Bart Schott of Kulm, (pronounced 'kul-um,' locally) has been elected first vice president of the National Corn Growers Association. That means he's headed for the presidency.
In the NCGA announcement, Schott said he was "honored and humbled" to be so selected. He comes into the post as the industry has been disappointed by a turnaround in the national attitude toward corn-based ethanol production.
My contact with Schott over the years has been all good. He's a good thinker, a good community and family man (I've run into him at Kulm football games.) and should represent his industry well. He's been chairman of the North Dakota Corn Council and has been a liaison on the board to the nation's cattle industry (important for the ethanol debate) and has been on the biotechnology working group.
Posted by: mpates on 6/12/2009 at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink