The American Soybean Association (ASA) represents U.S. soybean farmers on domestic and international policy issues important to the soybean industry. ASA has 26 affiliated state associations representing 30 soybean-producing states and more than 300,000 soybean farmers. Delivering his speech at a Seminar jointly organised by All Pakistan Solvent Extractors Association (APSEA), American Soya bean Association (ASA)and World Initiative for Soya in Human health here today, ASA's consultant Mark A Heimann said that Since Pakistan was a big importer of Soya bean ,It must adopt modern technology for better crushing and processing.He identified various processes that required improvements, conveying them to the crush plant audiences that requested implementation. Some key areas where he added value were: increasing the protein content of meal; increasing yield of soybean meal in a crushing operation; reducing hexane losses; taking control on moisture levels in the meal; and, more importantly, adopting safety and environmental issues in the plants. The WISHH program focuses technical transfer and behavior change efforts on weak links in agricultural value chains, delivering growth to local economies and improved nutrition to people and animals. The result of WISHH's work paves complementary trade routes that grow U.S. soy markets.He further said that ASA/WISHH, through the Emerging Markets Program (EMP), has been working to develop the market for value-added soy products, specifically soy flour, in Pakistan.EMP funding allowed for an in-country representative to provide trade servicing to bakeries and importers, along with funding for a reverse trade team. R.S.N. Janjua Country Rep. USSEC/ASA/WISHH/PK said that Initial soy flour sales were small and infrequent. As more bakeries became familiar with the economic and functional attributes of soy flour, sales are becoming larger and more frequent. The first sale took place in October 2013 and was only one container. Several months went by before a second container was sold. By the summer of 2014, sales were happening every two months and are anticipated to become monthly. As of spring of 2014, five containers of soy flour have been sold to Pakistan.Vice chairman of All Pakistan Solvent Extractor Association,Bilal Ahmed was appreciative of the technical support provided by USSEC for the betterment of the Pakistan soybean crushing industry. The mission also included visits to new upcoming crush plants, which wanted to convert from crushing canola to soybeans, and plants being installed by Pakistan’s large poultry feed producers (50,000 metric tons (MT) / month capacity) as a part of their backward integration business plans.Secretary General of APSEA Muhammad Mehboob Alam said that such training workshops and Informative seminars would help educating the solvent extractors.Mian Qaiser Shabbir Former Chairman , Amanullah Chaudhry ,A Senior Member and other members of the association attended this session .
