World Grain - December 2011 - 69

FEATURE: IAOM HOSTS EVENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

During the IAOM’s district meeting, an executive committee was formed to develop the educational program for the third annual meeting in Southeast Asia, which is scheduled for the fall of 2012. “We’re encouraged by the increase in numbers at this year’s conference,” said IAOM President Joe Woodard. “The potential for a very active and robust Southeast Asia District is great.” Further growth in attendance could see next year’s exhibition take place in a larger venue. “A resort might not be suitable,” said Farris. “Exhibitors are keen to bring their machinery, so a convention center might be more suitable. “We haven’t conﬁrmed a date and location for next year, but we will do soon. It depends what is available and when we decide to meet.” Delegates arrived in Bali from across Southeast Asia as well as from India, Japan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Australia was also well represented with speakers from leading exporters and infrastructure operators including CBH and GrainCorp. “Now, more than ever, it’s important to have meetings like these to bring millers together to discuss technical advancements in the industry, as well as opportunities for operating more efﬁciently in the mill,” said Woodard.
The Second Annual IAOM Southeast Asia District Conference and Expo saw a 50% increase in attendance. Photos courtesy of IAOM.

in interest in the event. “It’s amazing that we’ve grown so quickly in just our second year,” she explained. “We’ve had very positive feedback about the event and about Bali. We had one delegate who was attending his ﬁrst IAOM event, and he said how wonderful it was that the presentations had provoked so many different thoughts and ideas that he could apply at his own mill. He also said it had been great to meet other millers and talk to them. “Overall it has been a pretty positive experience, and we are always the ones who hear ﬁrst when there is anything negative to report.”

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM The two-day conference featured educational presentations that ranged from ﬂour correction through additives to fast grain analysis at receiving points, and reports on equipment modiﬁcations and upgrades to food safety and pest control practices. A tabletop expo included some of the industry’s leading equipment manufacturers and service suppliers. During the breaks and unopposed expo, exhibitors told World Grain there had been much interest in their products. “It has been good, yes. Southeast Asia is a growing market for equipment, so this is a good expo for us. We’ve already had many sales in the region,” said Jack Fox, head of international sales at han-

dling giant Neuero, which has been supplying loaders and unloaders to Southeast Asia for more than 20 years. Last year Neuero supplied a unit to Cebu City in the Philippines for Pilmico Food Corporation. The pneumatic ship unloader mounted on rubber wheels was rated at 300 tph and was designed for handling grain. This year the company delivered another machine to Cebu City, in this case a grain unloader rated at 600-tph capacity for deployment by Asian Grains Corporation. Indonesia itself is home to Bogasari, which boasts the largest single integrated ﬂour milling installation of its type anywhere in the world. The company is also the largest pasta producer in Southeast Asia with supplies exported as far as South Korea and Japan. As well as its own textile plant which produces polyprophelene bags used for ﬂour shipments, Bogasari operates its own ﬂeet of bulk carriers which are used to import wheat from both the southern and northern hemispheres, The changing nature of grain markets was prominent in the presentation given by William Syers, marketing manager – milling wheat, in Bunge’s Agribusiness Singapore division. He said grain market price volatility evident in the last ﬁve years was here to stay, primarily because the huge inﬂux of investment into grain markets had made it more susceptible to external variables. “This is causing a total transformation of our market,” he said. “From 2002 to 2006, trading was in the 150cent range. Since then it has been across a 900-cent range.” Rather than simply look at supply and demand, weather and other factors directly related to grain production and consumption, he explained that crude oil and ethanol markets could now produce market swings, as could mainstream ﬁnancial markets, illustrated by recent ﬂuctuations due to the European debt crisis. Minor (Continued on page 72)
69

www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / December 2011

http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - December 2011