The U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) 2016 annual report is now available online and via mail to members, highlighting the organization’s work in developing market share, finding new grain demand and serving long-term buyers of U.S. corn, barley, sorghum, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. 

The 2015/2016 marketing year experienced large exports as commodity prices remained low, with 100 MMT of U.S. feed grains exported across the world. This boom continued into the 2016/2017 marketing year, which started Sept. 1, 2016, with almost 28 MMT of feed grains in some form exported in the first quarter alone. 

Working together with members, the Council’s global team continues to hone strategy and find new opportunities to work in a changing market and policy environment in order to benefit U.S. agriculture. The report reviews these sales with a focus on Council activities in more than 50 grain markets. 

Highlights from 2016 included the biennial Export Exchange, co-sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association, which brought together more than 200 international buyers of coarse grains from 35 countries, resulting in sales of 2.6 million metric tons (102.4 million bushels) of coarse grains and co-products valued at $460 million. 

The Council also conducted activities essential to building and maintaining trust in the United States as the long-term supplier of high-quality grain for buyers in loyal markets like Taiwan, Japan and South Korea while working to recapture share in markets like Algeria and Malaysia and laying the foundation for sales farther into the future in markets like Cuba and Tanzania. 

The printed version of the 2016 annual report is a poster, which members can display in their offices or homes. A PDF version is available here. 

The online report, supplemented with videos, infographics and photos produced throughout the year, is available at https://www.grains.org/annualreport2016.