By: Stella Qian, U.S. Grains Council Manager of Trade Teams
The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) escorted a delegation from Kansas to China this week to promote U.S. coarse grains, assess current trends in the market and assist with rolling out the 2015/2016 corn and sorghum harvest quality reports.
While barriers for U.S. corn and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) exports to China remain, the market has purchased almost 5.3 million metric tons (208.7 million bushels) of U.S. sorghum this marketing year as of March 10. This is down slightly from last marketing year at the same time but still a major turnaround from 2011/2012 and prior marketing years during which China purchased almost no U.S. sorghum.
The group’s visit included briefings from the Council, U.S. Embassy and USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in China and stops at an agribusiness operation, a dairy, feed mill and milk processing facility. These meetings gave the group a chance to learn more about the Chinese market and establish connections in China that are invaluable when doing business with Asian buyers.
On Thursday, the group helped the Council roll out is 2015/2016 corn and sorghum quality reports during a seminar in Jinan by presenting the producer perspective on corn and sorghum quality. The buyers and end-users who were in attendance left the seminar with more information about the factors that impact U.S. crop quality and increased confidence in their ability to purchase the quality grain they need from the United States.
Mission participants included:
- Lance Russell, Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association board member
- Nathan Larson, Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission board member
- Sarah Sexton Bowser, United Sorghum Checkoff Program regional director
- Martin Kerschen, United Sorghum Checkoff Program director
- Pat Damman, Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association & Commission director
- Gary R. Gantz, National Grain and Feed Association director
- Kerry Wefald, Kansas Department of Agriculture director of agricultural advocacy
- Bryan Lohmar, USGC director in China
- Junyang Jiang, USGC deputy director in China
- Wennie Liu, USGC dairy program manager in China
Membership involvement in programs like the one this week in China is critical to the ongoing success of Council programs there and around the world.
Click here to view more photos from this mission.