By Cary Sifferath, U.S. Grains Council Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa

The U.S. Grains Council welcomed a team of Moroccan corn and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) importers to the United States last week. The team was composed of customers of CasaGrains, the leading importer of DDGS in Morocco, and also included their general manager, Ahmed Chermati. Their first stop was to Iowa, where they got a first-hand look at the current corn and DDGS supply. Thanks to the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, the team was also able to meet with farmer Dick Gallagher, who provided the team a unique opportunity to understand the hard work of U.S. farmers in securing market supply, even in extreme weather conditions.

Despite U.S. planting delays, the Moroccans were amazed at how farmers were able to catch up in just a week of sunny days. Thanks to Gallagher’s demonstration, and with the help from his brother and son, he was able to show each team member how farmers can react quickly to meet market demand, by giving them tours of his field on his planting and harvesting machinery.

A member of the team noted, “I now understand how U.S. farmers can feed the world and I hope that mother nature will reward their hard work at harvesting, so that corn market will return to a normal pattern with less volatility and speculation.”

Before leaving Iowa, the team toured an ethanol plant and a river terminal for loading DDGS into barges and heard a nutrition presentation on feeding DDGS. The Moroccans were encouraged to increase their DDGS inclusion rates for poultry feed, mainly in layer and breeder diets, to current levels used by the U.S. poultry industry.

The trip concluded in New Orleans, La., where they toured export facilities and met with companies to learn more about loading and freight services.

This visit opened the possibilities of combination shipments of U.S. corn and DDGS in the near future and will be a good start to get U.S. corn back into the Moroccan market.