Farm Director KC Sheperd is visiting with the Vice President of the U.S. Grains Council, Cary Sifferath, as he gives a grain trade update.
“We had a very tough fall- October, November, December- maybe even into January with a very strong U.S. dollar,” Sifferath said. “Low water levels on the river made it very difficult for us to compete internationally. The U.S. dollar is still fairly strong, but not as strong as it was back in the fall. The river levels are back, and we are really seeing U.S. corn and sorghum and DDGS and even ethanol exports starting to come back.”
Regarding the trade issues between the U.S. and Mexico due to the Mexican government issuing a decree banning genetically modified white corn, Sifferath said work is still being done to improve this issue, as Mexico has not made this decision based on scientific evidence.
Sifferath also talked about the latest work of U.S. Grains Council staff members internationally.
“We are seeing the EU become an increasing market for U.S. ethanol,” Sifferath said. “That is why we have people over there.”
A group of sorghum producers and exporters, Sifferath said, have recently had the chance to travel to China.
“It is our first delegation to be on the ground in China since Covid,” Sifferath said. “Since everything shut down for Covid in China- that goes back to December of 2019. China continues to be our largest market for U.S. sorghum exports. It is our second-largest market for U.S. corn exports. We are really excited to have some sorghum producers and the exporters who ship those products to be meeting with the big key importers, buyers, and end-users of sorghum in China.”
Sifferath said Japan has recently made a change to their energy policy, allowing U.S. ethanol in the form of ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) to gain 100 percent of Japan’s market share.
There are many markets in Central America, Sifferath said, that have a demand for U.S. corn and products such as DDGS.
“We are constantly trying to explain what we are doing around the world, explain the value of what we are doing back to our farming members- our agricultural members, that they see the value of investing in the U.S Grain Council, in our programs and our people around the world.”
