Ethanol Blog

A recent trip to Saudi Arabia gave members of the U.S. Grains Council an opportunity to educate Saudi grain buyers on the value of dried distillers grains with solubles as a nutritious and low-cost feed ingredient.

According to an article by the USGC (http://bit.ly/…), Nabeel Salameh, the USGC's local consultant in Saudi Arabia, joined with Diaa Ghaly, director of business development at MIRASCO, and Sean Mulford, DDGS merchandiser at Agniel Commodities. The team met with representatives of eight Saudi feed manufacturers, processing facilities and dairy and poultry producers.

Since DDGS is underutilized in Saudi Arabia, even among those who have been importing it, the team focused on how to substitute DDGS for a part of the corn in livestock rations, lowering the price of the ration, while still maintaining nutritional content.

In 2011, DDGS was included on Saudi Arabia's subsidy list, which is critical for importers purchasing commodities. Since then, the council has worked to building confidence in U.S. DDGS and providing information to Saudi buyers regarding U.S. grains markets and handling systems, as well as feed formulations.

While corn imports in the Middle East and North Africa are facing competition from other markets like the Ukraine, Brazil and Argentina, U.S. DDGS are a benefit to Saudi buyers in that they are easily available and well-priced.

The Council's long-term strategy is for more visits to Saudi Arabia to continue promoting corn co-products like DDGS and corn gluten meal. The regional outreach program will continue in December with a trip to Egypt for consultations with local feed manufacturers and poultry producers.

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

(ES)

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