Thirty-nine grain buyers from 17 nations attended the 2009 Grain Procurement Management for Importers short course at the Northern Crops Institute at NDSU to learn how to make more effective purchases in the U.S. grain marketing system. The course ran from Sept. 21-30.
Grain buyers from Japan, Philippines, Korea, Mexico, Italy, Indonesia, Colombia, China, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Canada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies, represented large and small food processing, feed manufacturing, and trading companies that import and trade hard red spring wheat, durum wheat, corn, soybeans, barley and other commodities.
“The participants of this course come to the institute to learn about the purchasing tools that will help them navigate their way through the unpredictable grain and commodities markets. One of our main objectives for this course is to help our customers understand the markets and how to purchase grain, so that they will be long-term customers of U.S. grains,” says Brian Sorenson, institute director.
Bill Wilson, professor of agribusiness and applied economics, was lead lecturer for the course. U.S. Wheat Associates and U.S. Grains Council are sponsoring several participants.
“In Asia, and in China in particular, the type of people who are selected to come to this course often have a very basic understanding about how to use the futures market, and even with the cash market, how to monitor and analyze it,” says Matt Weimar, regional vice president, U.S. Wheat Associates, Hong Kong. “We think the Northern Crops Institute’s course is more comprehensive and develops technical aspects. Bill Wilson helps them understand some of the requirements for gathering long-term historical data and the value of putting time into that.”
Topics included U.S. grain handling and transportation logistics, cash and futures markets, basis, U.S. grain grading standards, commodity analysis, hedging principles, options, exporter merchandising and contracting, price risk management, purchase quality specifications. Additional topics included role of railroads in U.S. exports, grain situation and outlook, buyer/seller relations, managing supply chain, international contract and arbitration, simulated electronic trading and managing ocean freight risks.
The Northern Crops Institute supports regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting technical education and services that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern-grown crops.