YO! First Taste of Vietnamese Agriculture: Day 4 (5/23)

Daniel and Nellie soaking in the knowledge that Jeanne Bailey has to offer

Our first full day in Vietnam began after a great breakfast with a debriefing from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and the U.S. Grains Council about Vietnamese agriculture and trade.  Jeanne Bailey and Tran Quoc Quan gave us an overview of the future of Vietnamese and U.S. agricultural trade from the FAS viewpoint.  This meeting helped us to realize how Southeast Asia is an emerging power and complementary trade partner for the U.S.  Jeanne really helped us to see that even though Vietnam has several obstacles for agricultural growth, they are gaining momentum.  Vietnam is at a crossroads with several international trade agreements such as its involvement with the WTO and the TPP.   Depending on which way the government chooses to go, there will either be harder times to come or structural reform.  Besides these barriers, Vietnam will likely become a leading rice exporter.  Also, they are the top Asian pork producing nation and the 4th leading Asian feed producer.

On the way to the feed mill we visited a "wet market," Asian equivalent of a farmer's market

Adel Yusupov, Southeast Asia Regional Director for the U.S. Grains Council, further connected the dots for us during another Vietnam briefing about the industry from the U.S. Grains Council point of view.  Since Vietnam is a high pork producer, where do they get their feeds from? US!  This only part of the reason that we should utilize the connection between Vietnam and the U.S. through the U.S. Grains Council.  We are large producer of commodities used for feed such as DDGS (dried distillers grains with solubles), corn, and soybeans, and can provide for their demand.

Following our enlightening meeting we visited Thanh Binh Feed Mill which is a diversified operation including a broiler breeder aspect, rubber tree plantation, and swine farm.  The mill utilizes many ingredients including DDGS which we mentioned is a U.S. import, but also local crops such as cassava and peanut.  Integrated into our tour of the facilities was a animal nutrition meeting between livestock producers and Dr. Budi, who is also with the U.S. Grains Council.   Following our tour of the mill Mr.Ph Duc Binh, owner and operator, hosted us for dinner which was filled with many cheers by yelling: "YO!" a Vietnamese characteristic of gatherings.

fishmeal was another product of the mill

The presentations and the tour showed us the opportunities that Vietnam has domestically and internationally for their agriculture.  When it comes to U.S. opportunity in Vietnam, we are complementary to them, but so are other markets such as South America and the even closer Australia.  How will we balance and all come up on top?  This may never be answered, but further along down the road of this I-CAL adventure we will uncover more about the future of these markets.

Keep trekking along to find out what adventures we will continue to find in Vietnam!