Mexico Office Hosts Busy Week Of Virtual Corn Quality Rollouts

Through a series of seven virtual seminars held over the course of a week, the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) Mexico office engaged 210 customers on new crop U.S. corn quality.

Attendees at the seminars, held in mid-January, included representatives from buyers’ groups and corn commodity associations eager to hear highlights from the Council’s most recent 2020/2021 Corn Harvest Quality Report, an analysis based on 601 samples collected from inbound, farm-originating trucks at harvest.

“We specifically presented the seminars in the same week for two main reasons: we wanted to market the ‘fresh off the press’ aspect of the report’s findings, and it is helpful to compare similar questions coming out of the report all in the same week,” said Heidi Bringenberg, USGC assistant director in Mexico.

Seven U.S. corn farmers and corn checkoff staff joined the Council team sharing this information, including Bob Hemesath and Mark Mueller from the Iowa Corn Growers Association; Terry Vinduska and Greg Krissek from the Kansas Corn Commission; Laura Knoth and Monty Parrish from the Kentucky Corn Promotion Council; and Jim O’Connor from the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council.

They presented details from the recent report and provided perspectives from their respective operations, including how they make planting decisions and where they market their grain, to prospective buyers and end-users in Northern, Southern and Southeastern Mexico, including Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Querétaro, Guadalajara, Veracruz and Mérida.

“We are very pleased at the turnout, participation levels and interest in quality for this 2020 crop,” Bringenberg said. “Since the quality expectations in the report were widely positive with fewer incidents of broken corn and foreign material expected, our customers were very happy to receive this news.”

Mexico was the top importer of U.S. feed grains in all forms (GIAF) for the 2019/2020 marketing year, at more than 23.7 million metric tons (equivalent to 936.2 million bushels) bought, valued at $6.65 billion. Mexico is the top international purchaser of U.S. corn, U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and U.S. barley and barley products products, the second-largest international buyer of U.S. sorghum and the seventh-largest international buyer of U.S. ethanol.

The harvest quality report is a companion to the 2020/2021 Corn Export Cargo Quality Report, due out in April, which will be based on samples taken at the point of loading for international shipment early in the 2020/2021 marketing year.

Together, the reports provide reliable information on U.S. corn quality from the farm to the customer based on transparent and consistent methodology. They each give an early view of grading factors established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), moisture content and other characteristics not reported elsewhere. Since they are done year after year, both reports identify any noticeable changes occurring between these time periods.

“These events have proved helpful in creating a bond between Mexican grain consumers and U.S. producers and have helped in reassuring the Council’s position as a reliable source of information,” Bringenberg said.

Read the full 2020/2021 Corn Harvest Quality Report.