Ethanol Blog

The U.S. is on its way to harvesting a record corn harvest and the U.S. Grains Council has been making great efforts to show off this year's crops to foreign buyers, according to a Council news release (http://bit.ly/…).

The Council has hosted a number of foreign delegations this fall, including a recent visit by nine buyers from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Panama. Latin America is home to 12 of the top 20 U.S. corn customers, and after several years of losing market shares, is beginning to increase purchases. This increase is helped by the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and a duty-free quota for purchases of more than 23.6 million bushels of U.S. corn in Peru.

While Ecuador interest in corn has waned due to the country's own large crop this year, importers are extremely interested in U.S. dried distillers grains with solubles, importing more than 13,000 tons of DDGS so far this year.

The Council continues to work with Venezuela, previously the fifth largest corn importer, due to government controls on importers and access to hard currency. A foundation has been laid by U.S. producers for a strong export year in Latin America by support of several Free Trade Agreements insuring that U.S. corn, sorghum and DDGS are competitive to those markets.

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

(ES)

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