Ethanol Blog

Korea increased its imports of U.S.-produced dried distillers grains with solubles in 2012, according to an article by the U.S. Grains Council (http://bit.ly/…).

Last year, 469,000 of the 505,000 metric tons of DDGS Korea imported on a customs-cleared basis were from the U.S.

The country's imports are growing. In December alone last year, Korea imported a total of 37,000 metric tons of U.S. DDGS, an increase from 32,000 metric tons total during December 2011.

The Council commented that Korea has remained a loyal customer to the U.S., in spite of the record high DDGS prices last summer/fall. In fact, the U.S. currently holds a 93% market share of Korea's total DDGS import total.

Korea also is increasing its production of mixed feeds, producing a record 18,480 metric tons in 2012, an 11% increase over 2011. The country's swine feed production has also increased by 27% since the hog population recovered from huge losses after 2011's foot-and-mouth-disease outbreak.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@telventdtn.com.

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