Since its founding in 1960, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) has held fast to its commitment to develop new markets for U.S. coarse grains and co-products – sometimes even in seemingly unlikely places.
It was an early step in the long process of re-opening U.S.-Cuba relations when the Council led a humanitarian grain donation to Cuba.
The Cuba mission in 1998 required State Department authorization, and the USGC delegation had to travel by way of Mexico because flights were not available from the United States to the island nation.
But the Council succeeded, first by delivering a donation of feed made with U.S. corn to the Cuban Rabbit Producers Association, then meeting with Cuban farmers and producer associations to assess what kind of market Cuba could be for U.S. grain exports.
Since then, and despite ongoing trade barriers, the United States has sold corn to Cuba each marketing year since the early 2000s and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) since 2005. Today, the Council continues its work in Cuba as the Obama Administration makes efforts to normalize trade relations there.
In another USGC first, the Council led one of the first farmer missions to Vietnam in late 1998.
At that time, most Vietnamese swine producers raised two to five hogs in backyard conditions. The Council’s mission members saw the potential for Vietnam to develop its animal agriculture sector and become an important customer for U.S. grains.
USGC members were confident enough about Vietnam’s potential to directly fund initial Council programs.
Based on its research, the Council organized a swine demonstration project in partnership with Cargill. That modest operation – a 52-sow breeding unit, nursery building and finishing barn for 300 pigs – has long since been eclipsed as Vietnam’s swine industry expanded.
From 2001 to 2007 alone, the country’s swine numbers roughly doubled and while Vietnam has not yet become a major corn market, USGC programs have helped it develop into a significant customer for DDGS, with imports totaling more than 630,000 metric tons, valued at $1.6 million, during the calendar year 2014.
The Council’s early history includes similar examples of breaking new ground in untapped markets.
In the 1970s, as China made initial steps to open its economy, the Council was quick to initiate contacts, opening the first cooperator office in a joint effort with the American Soybean Association and U.S. Wheat Associates.
That led to the development of the Nanjing Feed Mill, a pilot premix concentration mill built with Council-provided technical assistance to serve as a training facility for Chinese mill managers and as a model for 300 mills to be built later.
In 1972, the Council opened an office in Korea, helping to lay the groundwork for an important achievement: an educational program that countered Korean consumers’ belief that pork was unhealthy.
The Korea office also led the way in demonstrating how the U.S. beef feedlot system could work throughout Asia. The project began with the shipment of 264 calves to Korea, and upon their arrival, the Council offered guidance in designing the feedlot, feeding high-energy rations, providing health care and slaughtering the calves properly. The project was so successful that a similar project was launched in Japan.
The Council’s pioneering efforts continue today.
In the past few years, the Council has begun managing a Food for Progress program working to develop the poultry industry in Tanzania and taken on ethanol export promotion along with industry partners. These are two more efforts that have the potential to increase U.S. grain sales abroad over time.
The Council’s ability to seek out and exploit these new pockets of demand has made it an invaluable resource for U.S. farmers through the years and today.