Expanding Global Markets: Highlights from USAEDC's Annual Attaché Seminar

Written by: Ivy Torres   |   July 24, 2024

International Trade, Federal agencies

Every July, the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council (USAEDC) hosted its annual attaché seminar, bringing together United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) cooperators and attachés to discuss the most pressing issues for our industry.  

This year, the American Feed Industry Association’s Global Affairs team, accompanied by the AFIA Global Affairs Committee chair Chris Spangenberg, of Church & Dwight Co., Inc., and committee secretary Carly Guinn, of Hallway Feeds, joined the seminar. Some of you may recall Mallory Gaines’ blog about attending this seminar in 2022, when the AFIA was still a fairly new cooperator, where the AFIA staff spent most of the time helping the FAS staff better understand the feed industry and our niche products. 

This year, our team met with attachés from or headed to Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. We are excited to share that many of these attachés are already familiar with the AFIA and the work we are doing to further grow our opportunities in global markets. While we only have active, USDA-funded programs in three of these markets--Brazil, Morocco and Vietnam—the 25-minute attaché consultations, often compared to speed dating sessions, gave space for the AFIA to discuss market access barriers and concerns to the other six markets, demonstrating our members’ increased interest in new export opportunities.  

The opportunity to hold conversations with the attachés was definitely the main event, but the networking opportunities with other government officials, trade associations and consultants comes in at a close second. Guinn, who joined the meeting, had this to say about the experience: 

“The USAEDC held a conference this week, where I was able to represent the AFIA Global Affairs Committee and Hallway Feeds meeting with USDA Attachés from several different countries to discuss issues in agricultural exports. The Federal Maritime Commission also addressed my concerns of delayed vessels while shipping a perishable product like horse feed. It was a wonderful conference with all the great agricultural industries in the U.S. being represented!” 

Having members join us at these meetings is important as we bring to light pressing issues our industry is facing in overseas markets. Our members can provide crucial context, which is wildly important in our niche corner of the animal food industry.  

The attaché seminar continues to be a great opportunity for interacting with the FAS, whether we are discussing regulatory barriers, competition concerns or the payment schedules of Saudi’s princes. We left reinvigorated and excited for our new, or continued, collaboration to promote U.S. animal food abroad.