Seventeen grain buyers from Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Trinidad and the United States attended the Advanced Grain Procurement Strategies Short Course, which ran from May 14-18 at the Northern Crops Institute, located on the NDSU campus. U.S. Wheat Associates sponsored 11 participants.

The course was designed for global grain buyers who want to gain a competitive edge in grain marketing decisions to better manage price and quality risks. Trading and tendering games, case studies involving real-world situations and panel discussions gave participants practical experience in applying what they learned. The group also toured the Alton Grain Terminal in Hillsboro, N.D., to learn how their shuttle train facility operates.

John Crabtree, the institute’s assistant director, coordinated the short courses. “As agriculture continues to evolve around the world, it creates a lot of uncertainty in the grain markets,” Crabtree said. “From this course, grain merchandisers learn various price risk management tools that they can use to minimize market volatility.”

William Wilson, NDSU University Distinguished Professor of agribusiness and applied economics and an expert in commodity futures trading, led the course.

Lecture topics included changes in agriculture trade and evolving global supply chains; basis analysis; hedging and contracting; integrating options; value-at-risk; logistics pricing; inventories as risk management strategy; currency exchange risk management; risk management policy; current grain situation and outlook; and buyer/seller relations.