Japanese and Korean trade groups get an up-close look at Minnesota-grown soybeans
NERSTRAND, Minn. — Trade teams from Japan and South Korea visited southern Minnesota soybean farms earlier this month.
The group stopped at Keith Schrader's farm in Nerstrand and Aaron Jones' farm near Lake Crystal.
Schrader — who has attended trade missions himself and with his family to Turkey, Moldova, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines — has also returned the favor and played host to trade teams. He said he's hosted over a dozen trade teams over the years and three this year.
Schrader said the visits vary on the topics covered, and are catered to the groups' interest.
"This group here today is representing the feed industry of Korea and Japan, and they're interested in buying soybean meal, but they also had a lot of questions on corn as well, because they also import some corn to use for making feed," Schrader said. "We had a fair amount of questions on non-GMO corn and soy that goes into feed, which kind of gets driven by consumers."
On top of sharing what consumers in both Korea and Japan were interested in, Schrader shared the details of his family's operation, which has been in the corn and soybean business since 1976. The farm has grown significantly since then.
"We're farming around 6,000 acres now, and I have three sons who are partners," said Schrader, who also has a daughter who is a nurse in the area.
He shared photos with the trade group of his family, including one of his grandchildren in the front seat of a combine. He said the interactions during trade visits are when trust is built between two sides.
"I've traveled overseas a lot when I was on the Soybean Council, and I got to know a lot of these people personally," Schrader said. "Then they've come to the U.S. for a trade mission, and they're on our farm, and they're carrying our grandchildren around, so it's a real personal experience, and that builds huge amount of trust in a product that they're buying from us."
Kim Nill is the director of market development for the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. He said trade missions happen typically in the summer and fall seasons, when there can be as many as three trade trips a month.
"(The trade missions) are brought in by a variety of organizations, and often by our international market development arm, called the U.S Soybean Export Council, but often others will as well," Nill said. "We're happy to receive them, and farmers as you've seen here today with Keith Schrader, are very articulate in explaining the production of U.S. soybeans and the advantages that we feel high quality Minnesota soybeans bring to these customers."
Japan has been a great market for U.S. soybeans since 1956, Nill said, and imports from 3 million to 4 million tons of soybeans per year for animal production.
"Also almost 1 million tons for Asian soy foods such as nattō, tofu, miso and the other variants for their specialty dishes that they make in Japan," Nill said.
The market for soybeans in South Korea caters to a slightly different cuisine but a similar level of animal production.
"A grand total of 500,000 tons of soybeans for the food type beans, but two to three million tons for animal feed," Nill said of Korea. "We very much appreciate both. They're solid and great markets for our product."
Kevin Park was a representative on the trade trip from Posco International, which is South Korea's largest trading company.
"We actually eat what is produced from this field, so it is important to see how it is being produced and grown, and how the technology is being used for the growing of the seeds and grains," Park said. "I think this opportunity really gave us an understanding of the environment of this industry, and we can also market this product to our consumers."
