INVESTING CHECKOFF DOLLARS
Two women shade themselves from the heat of the sun while walking along the main port in Yangon, Myanmar.
PROSPECTING IN MAYNAMAR MARKET POTENTIAL EXPLORED IN SOUTHEAST ASIA BY JOSEPH L. MURPHY
D
uring the California Gold Rush, prospectors sifted, rinsed and repeated in hopes of discovering gold. In business today, prospecting is the art of identifying potential customers. A group of Midwest soybean associations are hoping that a recent prospecting trade mission in Southeast Asia will help them strike gold when it comes to building demand for U.S. soy. Representatives from the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), Kansas Soybean Commission and Nebraska Soybean Board, with the help of Mishek Incorporated, hope to add Myanmar and Malaysia to a list of emerging countries that could help whittle down abundant U.S. soybean supplies. “We’re prospectors right now,” Peter Mishek, a consultant with the ISA, says. “We are digging and gathering information. We’re like gold prospectors. It is like landing on the moon. It is
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uncharted territory, and we have to figure out what is going on to build a market profile.” The Myanmar livestock feed industry is poised for expansion, but experts say U.S. soy will need to establish customer preference first to fully capitalize on the market. A three-day trade mission to Myanmar in May revealed an untapped market that, combined with other southeast markets, could drive demand in a supply heavy U.S. soybean market. By some estimates, Myanmar's feed industry could experience double-digit growth for the next five to seven years. For U.S. soybean meal to be part of that growth, soy representatives say an understanding of infrastructure and logistics in Myanmar will be key. U.S. representatives will also need to educate owners of feed mills about the quality of U.S. soy.
“If we aren't here someone else will be,” Mishek says after visiting Crystal Diamond Livestock Company's feed mill south of Yangon, Myanmar. Crystal Diamond is an integrated business native to Myanmar specializing in feed, poultry, eggs, duck and swine. The company has experienced growth in its feed industry. Members of ISA, Nebraska Soybean Board and Kansas Soybean Commission told the company they want to be the preferred supplier of soybean meal for their operations. The company has two feed mills in Myanmar – one in Mandalay and another in Yangon. Crystal Diamond's Mandalay facility produces 86,000 metric tons (MT) of feed per year. The feed is bagged and transported by the company to farms. The Yangon location produces 240,000 MT of feed per year. The company utilizes modern facilities that have large commodity bulk storage bays and
