By: Luis Bustamante, USGC Marketing Specialist for the Western Hemisphere

This past week, I  presented a world corn market outlook at the Ecuadorian corn growers association’s (FENAMAIZ’s) forum that at the Technical State University of Quevedo. 

The Ecuadorian farmers, practitioners and academics who attended the forum shared their concerns with me about local farms. One concern was that most of the local farmers have switched their farmland from corn production to cocoa, pineapple, rice and yucca.

This shift in production is due to the low price of corn coupled with a high cost of production. There is limited storage, drying and logistic facilities near farmers’ fields, which adds costs to production. Also, this limits the farmers’ control of their crop, meaning they are forced to sell at inopportune times. In addition, in Ecuador, corn prices are set by the government, but farmers are paid intermediaries, impacting farmers’ bottom line. All of these factors have contributed to a shift in production away from corn.

Since the establishment of a regional office in Panama five years ago, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) has been implementing technical activities to promote co-products in Ecuador, resulting in several major feed companies using or running trials with distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

Currently, the main feed and grain companies in Ecuador are interested in purchasing co-products from the United States for livestock and aquaculture. Already from January to August of this year, Ecuador has imported 7,250 metric tons of U.S. DDGS worth $1.5 million, a 36 percent increase over the country’s entire purchases during the 2014 calendar year.

The Council will continue working in Ecuador to create new opportunities through targeted trade promotion activities for U.S. DDGS as this market grows and evolves. 

Click here to view more photos from the forum’s meeting.