Ethanol Blog

The U.S. Grains Council is continuing its 30-year effort to support the modernization of China's meat and dairy industries, as well as promoting U.S. coarse grains to those markets, according to an article on the Council's website (http://bit.ly/…).

China continues to be the world's biggest growth market for agricultural products. Last year, China was the third largest importer of U.S. corn and the larger importer of U.S.-produced dried distillers grains.

The Council recently sent USGC Chairman Julius Schaaf and Secretary-Treasurer Alan Tiemann to China to assess recent development and strengthen the Council's partnership with China. The two joined the Council's 2013 Corn Tour in northeast China to assess this year harvest, witnessing that China is expected a very good corn crop this year.

Schaaf said that most of the people the two met believed that Chinese consumer demand for meat has decreased and feed demand softened.

"The open question for the market is what the Chinese government is doing with reserves. China's domestic corn prices are still high, so there is still an economic incentive for imports," he said.

The Council will continue its efforts to expand opportunities for U.S. exporters in all sectors.

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

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