The sales representative of Alltech Nutrients Ltd. in Nigeria provides a tour of his storage facility to the USDA Regional Agricultural Counselor, Jude Akhidenor, and the local Agriculture Specialist, Uche Nzeka. The company purchases U.S. defatted soy flour and U.S. textured soy protein.

Last week, the American Soybean’s Association’s (ASA) World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) participated on a panel with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) personnel from sub-Saharan Africa, concerning business practices on the continent at the annual USAEDC conference.

WISHH Regional Director for Africa Josh Neiderman joined Charles Rush (FAS Accra), Jude Akhenidor (FAS Lagos), Kevin Sage-El (FAS Nairobi), Joshua Lagos (FAS Dakar), Justina Torrey (FAS Algiers) and Rachel Bickford (FAS Addis Ababa) for a one-hour discussion on business climate and opportunities on the continent.

ASA/WISHH receives funding from USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP), Foreign Market Development (FMD), and Emerging Markets Program (EMP) to conduct long-term market development activities in Africa. This year a Nigerian company has doubled their import totals of U.S. textured soy protein (TSP), importing two containers of TSP for use in snack food manufacturing. With the ongoing recovery of the Nigerian economy, the company expects demand for textured soy protein to reach 10 containers per year. In conjunction with market development activities on the continent, ASA/WISHH works together with U.S. companies to generate new ideas for gaining market share for U.S. soy proteins in the meat and beverage industries in Africa.