A team of nine representatives of the Japanese corn processing industry, feed industry and corn trade is touring the Midwest ahead of Export Exchange 2014, one of 18 trade teams set to travel in the United States before and after the coming conference.

These trips give participants, hailing from more than 30 countries, the opportunity to see firsthand the U.S. coarse grain production and supply systems and, importantly, the current crop quality.

The Japanese corn processing industry relies on U.S. corn for 95 percent of its product, while the feed industry gets 85 percent of its inputs from the United States.

“This trip will help maintain U.S. corn market share by strengthening the Japanese trust and confidence in the U.S. corn supply and quality through their findings,” said Tommy Hamamoto, U.S. Grains Council director in Japan, who is escorting the Japanese team.

“The end-user industries expect trade team participants to bring back information about the 2014 corn crop to their company headquarters, which they will use in their purchasing decisions.”

So far, the team has had the opportunity to learn about this year’s likely corn quality and how U.S. farmers produce their crops through visits to an Ohio farmer, as well as a local elevator and feed mill and an ethanol plant.

The team also visited Indiana, where they met with Rosalind Leeck, director of grain marketing for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann and completed a tour of ADM’s grain terminal there.

The team will wrap up their tour on Friday following additional producer visits in Indiana and a visit to the global headquarters of Dow AgroSciences. They will then depart for Seattle to take part in Export Exchange activities scheduled from Oct. 20 to 22.

More information about Export Exchange 2014, including registration for domestic participants and a full conference agenda, is available at www.exportexchange.org.