News

Strong export demand expected to continue

The CEO of the U.S. Grains Council says right now there’s a strong international demand for coarse grains and that could continue for the next several months.

Tom Sleight tells Brownfield low grain and transportation costs puts the U.S. in an ideal position as a preferred exporting nation.  He says that’s currently reflected with strong demand from Asia and other regions of the globe.  “We’ve seen great growth in the Western Hemisphere: Mexico, South America, Central America, Caribbean Basin—we’ve seen some nice growth there.  We’ve even seen some very strong growth throughout North Africa and the Middle East.”

Michigan Corn Executive Director Jim Zook tells Brownfield a portion of the state checkoff dollars are leveraged by the Council to build demand for U.S. exports of corn, ethanol and distillers grain.  “With that dollar that we provide to the U.S. Grains Council, that gets turned back value wise to the farmer about 28 times.”

The U.S. Grains Council, along with the Renewable Fuels Association, recently hosted their biannual Export Exchange event which Sleight, speaking to Brownfield during the event, says last time generated almost a Billion dollars of export business for the U.S.

AUDIO: Interview with Tom Sleight

AUDIO: Interview with Jim Zook