MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur/Asia soy-market forum project brings together leading experts

Soy beans demand from China has transformed Argentine and Mercosur agriculture

Experts from South America, US, Europe, India and China will be discussing next week in Rosario, Argentina the possibility of an Asia-Mercosur grains and oilseeds market in which soybeans will be playing the leading trade role.

The First Asia-Mercosur Soy Forum will take place September 14/15/16 in the Rosario Chamber of Commerce, 300 kilometres to the north of Buenos Aires and Argentina’s second most populous city which is considered the soy-bean capital since it is in the heart of the country’s soy belt, industry and trading.

“The world in coming years will be working on the one hand on a strong demand from Asia for grains and sub-products, and on the other there will be a region rapidly becoming the sole supplier”, said Rodolfo Rossi, head of the event organized by the Argentine Soy-bean Chain Association, ACSOJA.

“We want to anticipate and corroborate the current situation which clearly points that way” added Rossi.

Argentine industry currently processes 39 million tons of soy, which are expected to reach 56 million tons by 2020/2021, according to a recently released paper from the Argentine Mediterranean Foundation.

The First Soy Asia-Mercosur Forum will be in the framework of the Mercosur Fifth Soy Congress and 120 participants have been registered including 50 foreign experts. Among the experts figure Kavitha Rakasi and Suresh Itapu from India; Mark Messina from US and China’s Pengyin Chen

ACSOJA president Miguel Calvo said that the “current challenge of the chain is to further prop cultivation, search for new uses and appliances for the oilseed and ensure that the region effectively and sustainedly becomes more competitive”.

“We are looking for the main agriculture referents so they can share their experiences and current and future visions for agriculture thus satisfying the strong demand for information from the chain actors”, added Calvo.

Rossi said the forum will help collect all the research information available along the production chain of soy, of which the Rosario belt region is the main producer.

“We believe that in the next fifty years the region is going to play a defining and decisive role for the soy (Argentine) producing provinces, particularly because of the great demand we are all forecasting”, he added.