In the Market Where It Happens: USGC Recognizes Wayne Cleveland For 15 Years Of Service

Whether in Mexico, China or Spain, Wayne Cleveland, executive director of the Texas Grain Sorghum Producers Board, has witnessed markets for U.S. sorghum surge, recede and replace one another on a global scale. Through it all, he attributes the partnership between Texas sorghum growers and the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) as essential to supporting the livelihood of Texas producers.

“The Council has always provided sorghum with a consistent market,” Cleveland said. “We could never have done that on our own as an industry. It is based on knowledge and relationships that have been forged since the inception of the Council. That we are a part of the Council is really of comfort to our industry.”

When Cleveland started working with the Council 15 years ago, Mexico was the only major international market for sorghum. Later, in 2014, Cleveland played an active role in the overseas mission during which the Council organized the initial meetings introducing sorghum to the Chinese market. Cleveland recalled anticipating 20 to 30 people at each meeting, then arriving to groups of 200 or more.

“Those staff opened those doors that we did not know existed, let alone how to get them open,” Cleveland said. “Folks were curious about grain sorghum, and the Council brings the right people to the room.”

In the following years, the Chinese market would surge to prominence, and Cleveland would continue to assist the Council’s efforts to build relationships between Chinese end-users and Texas sorghum growers.

And when China launched anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on U.S. sorghum in 2018, Cleveland had just returned from an overseas mission to Spain promoting U.S. sorghum. The Spanish market purchased not only shipments diverted from China, but also 83,300 metric tons (3.28 million bushels) in new sales in the 2017/2018 marketing year.

“Whenever a shipment of grain sorghum gets diverted, like we saw with China, there was an immediate market in Spain that we had just left with a group,” Cleveland said. “That flexibility means the world to grain sorghum today. Fighting those trade barriers is critical to grain sorghum leaving the United States – and grain exports are one of the top markets for our grain sorghum in Texas.”

Beyond overseas missions, Cleveland is a frequent and dedicated host to Council trade teams that travel through his state, organizing Texas-sized barbeques and even treating the occasional trade team to a night of country western dancing. The most important part of these visits, however, are the interactions between buyers and end-users and Texas growers.

“Those groups are critical because people still want purchasing relationships. They want to see the guy that is growing the grain sorghum; they generally like to see the culture around it,” Cleveland said. “They get to sit on combines and tractors and at dinner tables with families that have been doing this for 100 years or so.”

This dialogue is equally important for growers, who sometimes find it hard to imagine how grain sorghum leaves their farm and ends up in livestock feed half a world away. Meeting with their end-users brings the reality of the market – including the importance of a quality product – back to growers.

“Our growers get to see the value in all the effort that goes into getting the grain from their farm to a pig in Spain,” Cleveland said. “That is always beneficial to our growers to know that you can’t just take sorghum to the elevator and dump it, you’ve got to deliver a quality product and that’s what our guys do because they see that value at the end.”

The Council recognized Cleveland for 15 years of service to the organization during its 58th Annual Membership Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Throughout those years of trade teams, overseas missions and more, Cleveland emphasized that relationships remain the most critical value of his involvement.

“It’s all about the relationships to me,” Cleveland said. “Talking markets and trade issues and being in the same room is ultra-important to myself as well as our growers.”