WISHH Project Officer Chris Slemp (third from left) and WISHH Program Committee Member, Monica and Mike McCranie, of South Dakota (center) meet with African trade team in Fargo for training, including a course on soy baking at the Northern Crops Institute.

State soybean organizations are teaming up with the American Soybean Association’s/World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (ASA/WISHH) this week in efforts to expand the use of U.S. soy in Africa.

The South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota soybean organizations are supporting U.S. training and commercial introductions for a WISHH trade team. The delegation includes eight African food industry leaders who are already buying U.S. soy as a result of WISHH’s work.

One participant is from the Ugandan SESACO company, which is a longstanding U.S. soy customer that has greatly benefited from past WISHH programs that helped the company create and market new soy foods. SESACO urged two of its clients to also start using U.S. soy and join the training this week to also expand their own product offerings containing U.S. soy.

All participating African companies or organizations paid the international airfare. State soybean funding supported training like the baking with soy course at the Northern Crops Institute (NCI) on June 1-5.

NCI presentations and hands-on training aided participants to incorporate defatted soy flour into baking recipes to create soy fortified food products. State soybean farmer leaders and staff are meeting with the trade team to discuss U.S. soy’s benefits and lead farm visits. WISHH also arranged for meetings at CHS and SunOpta to create additional commercial connections for the trade team.