GrainCom 2025 Conference Agenda

Registration

GrainCom opening remarks

Gert-Jan van Noortwijk, GrainCom Events Co-Founder

Welcome address

Paul Harrison, President, Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA)

“Update on GAFTA activities as the Association for the Trade”

Presentation / Panel
Food Security

 With 343 million people facing acute food insecurity across 74 countries where the World Food Programme (WFP) operates, the need for targeted investment in resilient food systems and supply chains has never been more urgent. This session will explore the challenges and solutions in addressing global food insecurity, with a focus on developing nations. It will highlight WFP’s end-to-end supply chain capabilities—from procurement to last-mile delivery—and the complex realities of operating in high-risk environments. Participants will examine how strategic engagement with commodity traders, agribusinesses, logistics providers, and financiers can enable scalable, sustainable solutions. Join us to discover how public–private collaboration can not only strengthen food security but also unlock market growth.

Presentation, Moderator, Panel:

Shannon Howard, Director, WFP Geneva
Nils Krage, Executive Vice President Grains & Speciality Division, Al Dahra
Gabriela Wurcel, Global Director External & Multilateral Affairs, FMC Corporation

Refreshment Break – Collaborate and Connect

Mercy Ships Address

Danielle Harbaugh, Foundations & Corporate Relations Manager
Valentin Rossel, Vice-President

Panel
BRICS

BRICS countries, home to half the world’s population and key suppliers of staple crops and grains, play an indispensable role in shaping global responses to trade volatity, food security challenges and the transition toward more sustainable agricultural systems. This panel will explore how trade, policy coordination, and technological innovation among BRICS can respond to contemporary challenges—rising food prices, environmental degradation, and supply chain disruptions.

Discussions will highlight how BRICS members can leverage their diverse agricultural systems and significant share in global trade to promote fairer, less distorted, more resilient food systems. Key themes include: the role of markets and trade facilitation in ensuring food access; strategies for mitigating the impact of climate change on agriculture; and opportunities for South-South cooperation in sustainable innovation, particularly in family farming.

In line with the current BRICS presidency priorities, the panel also offers a platform to explore themes such as avoiding unilateral restrictions, promoting sustainable productivity, and advancing inclusive trade rules aligned with SDG 2. The session will convene agribusiness leaders and trade diplomats for a forward-looking dialogue at the intersection of food systems and global governance

Moderators:

Speakers:

Brokers Cocktail

Registration

GrainCom opening remarks

Panel
Geo Politics

The world Geo-Political situation present, near future and the crystal ball for the future. The grains and oilseed markets cannot ignore the geo-political situation be it on a global or regional scale. This involves not only trade barriers, conflict zones and governments instabilities meaning the trade flows to continue to feed the world.

Panel:

Braz Baracuhy, Brazilian Embassy
Alejandra Castillo, NAEGA
Mikael Wigell, Geoeconomics, Finnish Institute of Int. Affairs
Victor do Prado, Science Po
Doaa Abdel-Motaal, Agriculture and Commodities Division, WTO

Refreshment Break – Collaborate and Connect

Presentation
World Outlook 2025/26

The world grain and oilseed outlook (supply/demand) for the coming 25/26 campaign. Production policies for the main origination countries, demand especially from areas of increase population and potentially how trade tariffs and restrictions could alter the supply/demand.

Speaker:

Dan Basse, Agresource

Presentation
European Outlook 2025/26

European grain and oilseed outlook (supply/demand) for the coming 25/26 campaign. Those GrainCom delegates directly or indirectly involved with Western Europe, Ukraine, Russia the need to analyze deeper the region related to EU Commission policies and especially regarding the scenario of Russia and Ukraine.

Speaker:

Harm de Wilde, Cefetra

Lunch – Collaborate and Connect

Panel
Producers

The Industry needs know the opportunities for Farming and Supply Chains with Advanced Technologies. Nutrient Use Efficiency and Grain Sensing Technology.

Moderator:

Paul Harrison, SGS

Panel:

Stefan Wegener, John Deere
Carolina Ferreira, Octopusbot
Mark Lepp, GrainFox
Harry McCune, Harry McCune Farms

Panel
Consumer

The Industry considers the consumer as the animal feed manufacturer and flour miller, but they are only the link to the real end consumer. The industry needs to understand and acknowledge the difficulties the manufacturer and miller must provide the product required by the final consumer.

Moderator:

Dan Basse, AgResource

Panel:

Ahmed Elsebaie, Member of the Advisory Board of Food Science & Technology Program Ain Shams agriculture university, Cairo, Egypt 
Gunhan Ulusoy, Ulusoyun
Alex Eito, ARASCO
Fabien Varagnac, Grains & Flours Insights

Refreshment Break – Collaborate and Connect

Panel
The Supply Chain.

The grain and oilseed organizations know their industry well but operating in the world environment of today brings many topics that are not easy to follow. Laws change fast, Sanctions are enforced, Tariffs are applied, Trade financing, Third Party risk, Compliance – just to name a few. The industry needs to understand these challenges and be prepared. “Preventative” actions.

Moderator:

June Arnold, GAFTA

Panel:

Tariffs Bilal Muftuoglu, Howe Robinson Partners
Sustainability Marina Souza, Fyffes
Trade Finance Charles Osborne, Trade Finance Global
Law, Contracts Michael Buisset, HFW
Sanctions Sarah Hunt, HFW

Presentations / Panel
Weather

The technology available can very accurately predict the weather across all regions but what is important is to fine turn the “hot spots” that will need to be watched for 2025 on how the industry limit weather risk.

Moderator:

Chris Hyde, Meteomatics

Presentations / Panel:

Chris Hyde, Meteomatics
Rodrigo Cortes, Octopusbot
Kyle Tapley, Vaisala
Oleksandr Artiushyn, Munich Re

Gala Evening

GrainCom opening remarks

Gert-Jan van Noortwijk, GrainCom Events Co-Founder

Presentation / Panel
Risk Management

Risk Management. The industry should be aware of all the tools available to help control the risks

Moderator:

Jeff McPike, WASEDA Commodities

Panel:

Peter Smithers,​​​​ AMIUS
Nicolas Kennedy, ADMIS
Mike Veil, BCGE
Alex Bobylov, EuroNext

Presentations / Panel
Technology

Emerging & Enabling Technologies Across the Global Grain & Oilseed Value Chain: Grower Engagement (Commercial & Agronomic); Digital visibility across industrial operations for efficient and de-risked trade execution; Stakeholder-Specific Value in Domestic Sourcing, Port Operations, Warehousing, Industrial Processing, Trading and Trade Finance.

Speaker:

Christopher Liguori, Accenture
Pawel Dadura, Revenue.AI
Barcellona Bustos Bruno, Former Cargil Product Lead

Refreshment Break – Collaborate and Connect

Presentation
Freight

The grains and oilseed markets must have a clear knowledge and pro-active understanding of the mechanics of the freight market.

Speakers:

Serena Piazzo, Laura Gomez, Ifchor Galbraiths

Lunch – Collaborate and Connect