By Kelly Brunkhorst, Director of Research for the Nebraska Corn Board
Read Part 1: Grains Council Corn Mission | Japan, here.
Read Part 2: Grains Council Corn Mission | China, here.
Vietnam to me is the wild card. They are price conscious buyers that are importing grains from many countries and with them being part of the ASEAN countries, they have FTAs with many suppliers. Currently they are importing feed wheat to fill in some of their corn needs. While in Vietnam, we meet with a trading firm (operated by a 28 year old), the ATO, feed manufacturer, and a swine operation.
Vietnam has a great desire to be self sufficient in meat protein for their country. This leads to great possibilities of grain exports into their market. In many of the meetings we heard about the expansion and profitability in the livestock sectors and with expansion in the 15-17% range.
One issue that we did have substantial discussion on at one meeting was in regards to fumigation and the requirement from the Vietnam government on the use of methyl bromide. We talked about the phase out of the use of this product and is something that needs to probably be followed up on.
The Trans Pacific Partnership was also raised in Vietnam with their concerns of lower priced meat imports competing with their domestic production. Swine is an expanding sector as is the aquaculture area.
Overall, Eastern and Southeastern Asia countries provide both a mature market in Japan, with a young and expanding market in China and Vietnam. Those countries that we visited with, including our stop in Korea, have concerns about the ability for China to significantly change the flow of corn. This has yet to be seen to a significant extent, but seems that the possibility is there.
Find more pictures on the online Flickr photo album, here.
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