Written by Poultry Nutrition Consultant Bob Swick.
Northern Soy Marketing (NSM) Consultant Bob Swick participated in the U.S. Soybean Export Council’s (USSEC) Feed Technology and Animal Nutrition Conference (FTANC) 2024, which NSM sponsored, in Denpasar, Indonesia.
FTANC is one of USSEC Singapore’s flagship yearly events and this year there were over 140 attendees from feed and animal companies, academia and allied industry across Southeast Asia, along with speakers from Europe, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The theme of this year’s conference was focused on sustainability, and the application of new technology for sensing and streamlining processes in animal and feed production. This includes ingredient analysis using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology. Additionally, it was highlighted that artificial intelligence is now growing at a faster rate than computer chip transistor, doubling every two years. Advancements like this will dramatically improve farming, feed production and animal farming over the next months and years.
A session on precision nutrition included formulation examples using net energy and branched chain amino acids and applications of broiler growth modeling. The monetary advantage of energy and digestible amino acids and lower levels of CO2 equivalents for production of U.S. meal as compared to South American meal were highlighted.
The Southeast Asia feed industry has now survived the Covid pandemic and African Swine Fever and is on the mend and growing again. Local governments need to be educated to limit trade restrictions, which happened earlier this year when corn inputs to Indonesia were limited, causing prices to spike higher than soymeal.
In a private discussion with a senior technician from a large Indonesian feed and poultry company, the importance of developing trusting relationships between U.S. soymeal traders and local buyers is needed to recreate and ensure lasting sales of U.S. soymeal, which is a top priority of NSM’s various trade missions to Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Indonesia. The opportunity now exists to harness advanced technology with NIRS soymeal measurement to cultivate relationships and guarantee quality and consistency at both loading and destination. NSM and USSEC can work together to bring the trade and buyers together to ensure this success.
