Wiper Presentation (Written by Alexander Farrah)

Agribusiness in Argentina

Iván Ordoñez explaining his
background in agribusiness.

January 8th 2018, on the first full day of our trip to Argentina, our group of 35 students had the privilege to experience our first business presentation. Bright and early at approximately 9:10 am we met in the hotel lobby and walked over to Avenida Leandro Alem in our sophisticated business casual attire. On the tenth floor, we walked into a small presentation room. There we sat down, eager to meet with and listen to Iván Ordoñez an Agribusiness Consultant. 

Ordoñez started off his presentation by providing us a background of his career. He currently works at Grupo Los Grobo S.A. which is the leading agribusiness company in Argentina. With his knowledgeable background he explained that throughout the presentation we would learn about "global commodities " as well as, "the key supply and demand fundamentals" and lastly discussing the "farming in Argentina versus farming in the U.S."

During our welcome orientation the day prior, we all took a survey asking us questions about our backgrounds and opinions on food and how we live. Ordoñez explained the difference of views between our group as Bryant University students compared to other groups that he has presented in front of, usually consisting of MBA students. Overall he summarized that MBA students are usually male and he mentioned that there is a trend that on average that the more people worked, the more money on average they made. 

A student volunteer, Helmuth Iraheta,
attempting to answer Ordoñez's question.

We then learned about how this influenced more population growth in urban areas. For example, 2010 was the first year ever in the world to have more urban inhabitants compared to rural inhabitants. One of our students Nicole Kim when later interviewed said that she thought that "it was interesting that the trend has shifted, and that this growth is noticeable even in New York City" (which she lives close by). This was interesting to learn from a agribusiness perspective to see the change in supply and demand for food and the change of people's views on both production and consumption.

Bryant students actively engaged with discussing
the topic agribusiness with Ordoñez. 

Towards the end of the presentation, people were very interested with the speaker and asked a lot of engaging questions. We discussed a range of topics from the future market, the increase in both supply and demand for farming in Argentina, as well as the differences between farming in the U.S. versus Argentina. For example, it is treated more as real estate, where the owner is not the farmer. The farmer "rents" the land for non-perennial crops. One particular question that was asked by Adam Gosslin was, "What would be the ideal land for soybeans corn and wheat?". We then learned from Ordoñez that, "Brazil would be a good example because of the consistent rain during the farming seasons". It was fascinating to learn such broad topics regarding agribusiness as well as some specific details about the farming  industry. 

Ordoñez answering Kayla Bauerline's question
regarding the future market.

On behalf of us Bryant students I can say that we all thoroughly enjoyed this presentation due to its wide range of information that we were all not initially knowledgeable on. This first business presentation was a great start to what we will continue to learn while abroad in Argentina.