By: Tommy Hamamoto, U.S. Grains Council director in Japan

One of the U.S. Grains Council’s great success stories in recent years has been the development of a robust global market for distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). But the product is changing. The recent industry trend of removing oil from DDGS means that international buyers have to be re-educated about a differentiated product stream, with new implications for feed formulations.

Japanese buyers had become accustomed to “traditional” DDGS and expressed concern about the new product, which contains only six to nine percent oil (fat). As the Council did when DDGS were first introduced in Japan, the Council is taking the lead to ensure buyers and end-users are well informed about the changes in oil content of U.S. DDGS. This assists buyers and end-users to make are making the necessary adjustments to appropriately utilize low-oil DDGS.

The Council’s Japan office has provided and will continue to provide technical seminars and assistance to help the industry understand the nutritional value of low-oil DDGS and how to appropriately incorporate it into feed formulations. To further answer Japanese importers questions, in September, the Council escorted a team of Japanese feed and livestock industry representatives through Nebraska to gather firsthand information on U.S. DDGS.

Besides continual education, the Council’s Japan office in collaboration with the Japanese agricultural industry is working to accomplish the re-registration process of low-oil DDGS with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). The change in nutritional content of DDGS requires the product to be tested and then re-registered as a new product with MAFF.

Japan has been a valuable trading partner with the United States, steadily increasing its imports of U.S. DDGS to more than 450,000 metric tons in calendar year 2012.