AgriBusiness Global Report: Mercosur Ag Veterans Visit SE Asia on a Mission to Strengthen Ties With Region
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In this two-part interview, TAFIREL’s Nicolas Potrie interviews an ag executive and professor of international business about the trio’s recent visit as part of team to strengthen Mercosur members relationship with three Asia countries.
SE Asia is a critical region for those in the crop inputs industry, especially with tensions building between China and the U.S. AgriBusiness Global is hosting the AgriBusiness Global SE Asia Conference on 8-9 November 2023 at the Pullman Jakarta Central Park in Jakarta, Indonesia to help crop protection businesses make those contacts.
Transcript:
Welcome to the AgriBusiness Global Report, a show that brings you executives interviewing executives or experts working in the agrochemical, biological, and plant health industries. In this episode, Dr. Nicolas Potrie, Director of TAFIREL, interviews Analaura Delissague Erro from Erro Group, one of the largest exporters of commodities from Uruguay, and Professor Ignacio Bartesaghi, from the Institute of International Business of the Catholic University of Uruguay. They’ll discuss their recent visits to Malaysia, Thailand, and Philippines. The trio was part of a group of executives from Mercosur countries looking to strengthen the relationship between those regions.
Nicolas Potrie: Well, thank you, Dan, and thank you everybody from AgriBusiness Global. We would like to introduce today our two guests from Latin America, from Uruguay, Mrs. Analaura Delissague Erro from Erro Group. Welcome. Erro is one of the biggest players and exporters of commodities and food from Uruguay. We also have Professor Ignacio Bartesaghi, from the Institute of International Business of the Catholic a University of Uruguay. Welcome to this chat.
First of all, I would like to thank you. I will give AgriBusiness Global for facilitating this this kind of interview where we can share our insights of the trip that we did with the Mercosur Chamber of Commerce recently to Southeast Asian countries. Tell us a little more about your experience on that trip.
Analaura Delissague Erro: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for this invitation. It’s an honor for me to be part of this group. So, our experience to this mission was absolutely fantastic. It was my first experience, my first step in Asia, in Southeast Asia. So, I think that most, the best way to start my knowledge in person to this part of the world. And the mission was with that very interesting group of people, a business group. So, the experience in general was 100% successful.
NP: Which countries include that mission, and which organization do you visit there?
ADE: The country that we visit was in this order, Malaysia, Thailand, and Philippines. Then by myself, I continued the trip to Singapore.
The order of the countries, that was my first time there, was perfect. We had the best hospitality, the best interlink, and the most impression that I had in in this country was the pro-business that they are all of them.
So, they are goal (oriented) and looking forward 30 years ahead. And in looking for business and thinking in the future all the time. For us, as a region, Latin American, for us as a country, and for us as a company, we think this kind of mission, this kind of trip is the best way, because we can show to the world our potential as a group of country and our commitment that we had, but also our potential. So, I strongly believe that it was the best way to start my visit in person to Asia.
NP: That’s great to hear, and also, you belong to the regional Chamber of Commerce. That is not so common that includes Mercosur countries and Asian countries. And, Professor, I ask you about this Chamber of Commerce, that is regional and includes a chair, that university, and a business institute also, right?
Ignacio Bartesaghi: Right, Nicolas. Thanks for the invitation. Yes, the Mercosur Chamber of Commerce has an academic chair that was established in 2016, and the general idea there is to cooperate between different universities from different regions – Mercosur and Asia members. We organize conferences. We try to encourage the join research because the idea is we are far away from this region. We don’t talk a lot about Asia, about South Asia.
We’ll talk a lot about Asia at the end. We need more information. We need to hold private sector to have good information about great about trends, about what Annalaura was talking about. What is going on in the transformations in this region is (happening) very fast. The general idea of this here is to have more and more information.
We have already launched it in 2016 in Catholic University. The first chair, then we’ll be one in Indonesia, in Jakarta. Then we’ll open it up one in Malaysia. Then we have one in in Vietnam. Now we’re having some conversations with Philippines and Thailand. We’re also having conversations with Paraguay and Brazil. We are working hard (to develop) links between our academics and experts because we think it’s important to have more information for the private sector. That was the reason, Nicolas, because a problem with this, a group of business sector to help with this kind of information, to give more information about this region.
NP: Yeah, to also join some conferences in universities and institutes where you talk about food security and the situation in the world that we are facing now. After the pandemic, and also during this war between Ukraine and Russia. And how it will affect our food industry? What is your opinion about this situation between Southeast Asia and U.S. and China tensions?
IB: Okay, we, in the international arena, we are across in a lot of products. Of course, this tension between China and the U.S. is affecting the global economy, of course, the war in Ukraine, South Asian countries were really impacted because of COVID not only because of the general impact of COVID in the in the global economy, but also in particular, because of China.
When we talk about these countries, we need to understand that the links, the relations with China, are very strong in different issues. We saw that on this visit. So, the impact of COVID, the impact of the war. It was very hard for Asean members, but in the case of Mercosur I think we have a role there. Analaura was talking about that. We are very good exporters of food.
In the case of Uruguay, we are a very small country. We must remember that we are 3.4 million people here, but we can export food for more than 50 million people. And Mercosur is a very, very big, global player for first Brazil. We can export to this region that are really worried about the safety limitation. They are really worried about the supply of these kinds of products because they are buying more and more food. Why, they are buying more and more food, because the middle class of this region is increasing very fast.
The patterns of consumers are changing. We need to identify opportunities and to sell more food. Impacts because of the war and impacts because of tensions between China and the U.S., of course, are not good for the global economy.
In the case of Mercosur, we have a lot of opportunities because of the work we have some supply restrictions because of the climate situation. Also, we can play a role there. We can support this region with more food. That is the most important opportunity for Mercosur countries.
NP: With a private sector that you visit also Chamber of Commerce, and Analaura you visit some a profile of customers that you visit in Asia – potential customers. What can you tell us about this kind of business opportunity that you saw in the trip?
ADE: Yes, as we’ve been talking the opportunity for us is huge as a region and as country. We believe that Asia is not only China, and we must diversify the destination of our product, and Southeast Asia is the perfect customers for our products. In our company, we started to export to this part of the world – Asean members around 10 years ago, with excellent results, with excellent relationships. And this opportunity was a perfect opportunity to meet them face-to-face, and (explore) new opportunities, new potentials.
Talking about grains, they can receive small vessels at small ports with imports by containers. For us, it’s okay. And I always talk about the importance that we have as an exporter of grains as a commodity right now has a strong work in all the trustability and not the certifications and all the sustainable change. We are looking for a customer, and we have the same that it the same needs. And we found it. We must continue to work in this, because it’s the way that Uruguay can position our products in the best way.
NP: About prices, because here we are always worried about the price of commodities, and what small thing that happened in other part of the world affect immediately our business and our situation. So what can you tell us about these trends?
ADE: Grains right now – especially soybean – we are in weather market for grains, right now. The United States has a waiting for more rain. Some grains are coming, and that’s okay. The key and the headlines will be in the offer.
What is going to happen with the offer? And that is the way that the rest of the things are going to move. We are now looking to the United States, and we have to wait to see what is going to happen?
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