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US Grains Council expects record Chinese corn purchases to continue

The senior director of global programs for the US Grains Council expects record purchases of US corn by China to continue this marketing year.

Cary Sifferath tells Brownfield at the end of the 2020-2021 marketing year in August, China stood out as a fairly new player for large US corn purchases.

“We saw them come in and buy 842 million bushels of US corn and that is a new record for us to export that much corn to any single market. It breaks the old record with the Soviet Union back in 1987 I believe.”

He says China has rebuilt their hog herd from African Swine Fever with more modern farms and higher quality feed rations that call for larger amounts of high quality corn. He says their poultry and corn processing industries are also large users of corn.

“We don’t see this as a one-off thing. We think China is going to be in need of importing corn and other feed grains for years to come.”

He says China contributed to an overall record of US corn exports for the marketing year.

“Right now at least, the number appears to be around 2.636 billion bushels of total corn exports in the 2020-21 marketing year, that is also an all time new record for corn exports in the US.”

He says while pandemic restrictions have prevented in-country trade visits, the USGC has found creative ways to keep grain buyers from China and other partners up to date on US corn conditions and transportation.