U.S. Corn Quality Roadshow Pays Dividends For U.S. Corn, Sorghum Farmers

Each year, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) publishes a corn quality report as the crop is harvested. This information is critical for international customers making feed grain purchasing plans, with quality, availability and price as key decision-making criteria. Likewise, the November and December timeframes are a crucial juncture for these purchasing decisions, which is why the Council’s Southeast Asia office engages their customers annually through a feed grains and corn co-products roadshow in conjunction with the new edition of the corn quality report.

It is vitally important to regional buyers to get this data to help them understand the corn quality specifications they will be buying. Additionally, presenting the new data in person allows Council staff and consultants to address any concerns buyers may have in a proactive manner. The roadshow format also provides a forum to reiterate to customers the benefits of U.S. corn co-products in feed formulation as well as introduce new opportunities found with other coarse grains such as barley and sorghum. In 2018, because of the Chinese trade action against U.S. sorghum, the Council was able to highlight the market opportunities for U.S. sorghum to each of the visited countries.

Supplementing the 2018 roadshow, the Council also organized a series of one-on-one meetings with companies identified as progressive market leaders. In these meetings, the Council had a nutritionist present on the value of corn, DDGS and sorghum in Southeast Asia feed rations. As a result of these meetings, 200 metric tons of U.S. sorghum valued at $36,000 and 50,000 tons of corn valued at $8.75 million were sold.

The Council invested $69,600 of Market Access Program (MAP) funds in support of this conference. With reported sales of $8.786 million of U.S. grains products, this translates into a return on investment (ROI) of $126.24 for every $1 of MAP invested.