MAIZALL, the international maize alliance, this week announced the election of Sergio Bortolozzo as its new president. A farmer from Brazil, Bortolozzo succeeds U.S. Grains Council Past Chairman Julius Schaaf, who had served as president since the formation of MAIZALL in 2013.

“I want to begin by thanking Julius Schaaf of the Council for his leadership in establishing MAIZALL,� Bortolozzo said. “We will continue as a partnership of three countries presenting the growers’ perspective in international discussions on technology and trade.�

MAIZALL is a strategic partnership formed by the Council, the National Corn Growers Association, ABRAMHILO and MAIZAR, the major corn producer organizations of the United States, Brazil and Argentina. Each of the three counties has equal representation on the Board with the presidency rotating among them.

In its first two years, MAIZALL worked closely with the agricultural and foreign ministries of all three member countries to urge cooperation on regulatory issues and expanded market access for exporters. The organization has also met with government and industry leaders in China, Korea and the European Union, as well as officials at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to encourage improvements in the biotechnology approval process in key export markets.

MAIZALL is also a participant in the Global Low Level Presence Initiative (GLI), an international working group that is seeking to encourage greater synchronicity in biotech event approvals and to develop trade enabling protocols regarding the low-level presence of unapproved events.