Tsunami Relief Includes U.S. Soy Products

January 11, 2005

ASA Special Distribution – International Relief and Development (IRD) is responding rapidly to the tragedy caused by the December 26 tsunami by putting U.S. soy to use in Indonesia where IRD has already worked with the American Soybean Association (ASA) and ASA’s World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program.

“IRD is a proven organization that has an excellent track record with U.S. soy products,” said ASA Asia Regional Director John Lindblom. “We are glad to see U.S. soy in their capable hands as they work to reduce human suffering.”

Quickly after the earthquakes, the Arlington, Virginia-based organization donated U.S. soy products to the Indonesian Ministry of People’s Welfare. The donation includes 17.5 metric tons of soy-enriched biscuits, 17.5 metric tons of soy-enriched snack noodles, 1 metric ton of soy-enriched rice noodles and 1 metric ton of soy-enriched ready-to-eat macaroni.

With grower dollars invested by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, the ASA helped develop the soy-enriched noodles at Singapore Polytechnic’s Noodle and Development Research Center. IRD has worked with these products with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Initial shipments of soy flour were under USDA’s Food for Progress program, thanks to efforts from the WISHH Program. IRD has utilized soy-enriched biscuits and snack noodles in its Student Health Improvement Project in approximately 500 Indonesian schools.

Prior to the December 26 tsunami, Alfi Puruhita (on the right) ASA’s consulting staff nutritionist and food technology expert in Jakarta, Indonesia is shown holding a packet of soy enriched noodles at a local market. (ASA Staff Photo)

IRD’s work in Indonesia has already started a positive trading relationship between the U.S. soybean industry and Indonesian noodle manufacturers. The project was so successful that IRD has begun efforts to replicate it in Cambodia, and has a proposal pending with the USDA for a similar program in Vietnam.

IRD’s initial Indonesian project with wheat noodle manufacturers began in 2000 and ended in March 2004. Yet it has allowed three factories to find a sustainable market for soy-enriched wheat noodles. The food aid work has resulted in sustainable business--one of the factories purchased 12 ship’s containers of U.S. soy flour from Cargill in the last year.

The noodle manufacturers have helped to feed more than 4 million consumers who have purchased the soy-enriched noodles. It also created jobs for more than 1,000 workers at the noodle factories themselves. One of the noodle manufacturers stated that, “this program has helped us not only to survive but has given us the opportunity to expand.”

Describing the long-term potential of the effort in November 2004, David Prettyman, IRD Asia Regional Representative, said “Many small-to-medium sized noodle factories in Indonesia either closed or had severely curtailed their production after the onset of the Asian economic crisis in 1997-98. As a result, many local workers had lost their jobs. The market potential for soy-enriched noodles among the growing Indonesian middle class is substantial.”

Prior to the December 26 devastation, the U.S. already had more than a 90 percent share of the market of soybeans imported for use in Indonesia’s tempeh, using more than a million metric tons, according to ASA’s Lindblom. The soy-enriched noodles represented a newer commercial opportunity. More than 60 percent of the wheat consumed in Indonesia is eaten in the form of noodles, so this represented a potential market of 50,000 metric tons of additional exports for U.S. soybean producers, if only 30 percent of the existing noodles incorporate soy.

IRD is working with the U.S. Embassy to employ a multi-faceted response that will unfold in coming months. Throughout the next few months, IRD plans to respond to the crisis by providing immediate and short-term humanitarian commodities such as medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and equipment; rebuilding damaged infrastructure such as schools, medical clinics and housing; and helping people to rebuild their livelihoods by equipping them with tools and/or resources to return them to self-sufficiency.

Tax-deductible donations can be made by sending checks payable to International Relief and Development, Inc. and mailed to: Elmer Owens, Chief Financial Officer, International Relief and Development, Tsunami Relief Fund, 1621 North Kent Street, 4th Floor, Arlington, Virginia 20029. Telephone: 703.248.016. Updates on IRD’s work are available at http://www.ird-dc.org/.

To learn more about WISHH visit www.wishh.org or call Karen Edwards at 703-281-7600.

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