Equipped with growing poultry and dairy sectors and new opportunities, Tunisia and Libya are emerging as potential markets for distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). According to Cary Sifferath, U.S. Grains Council’s senior regional director of the Mediterranean and Africa, Tunisia could potentially import 50,000-75,000 metric tons of DDGS, while Libya is close behind with potential imports of 40,000-65,000 tons. Tunisia has imported only one cargo load of U.S. DDGS (12,000 tons) in its history, and Libya has almost no experience with U.S. DDGS.

“Promoting DDGS and corn gluten is one of our best opportunities to defend U.S. market share in North Africa, including Tunisia and Libya,” notes Sifferath. Over the past 18 months the US has captured only 10 percent of Tunisia’s corn imports and 7 percent of Libya’s corn imports. Increased competition, especially from the Black Sea region, has eroded the U.S. share in that region.

According to Sifferath, one strategy to regain U.S. market share is to introduce cost-saving alternative feed ingredients like DDGS, corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal and to teach importers to purchase combination vessels with small lots of corn, soybeans, DDGS and other feed ingredients.

“By showing our customers that they can save money by purchasing combo shipments from the United States, we can overcome the price advantage our competitors may have for a single commodity,” said Sifferath.

The Council has organized various information events to address the information gap issue. On Thursday, May 31, the Council and members Mirasco and POET brought Tunisian and Libyan importers together in Tunisia to discuss potential collaboration on importing combination vessels of feed ingredients.

“This kind of collaboration can be attractive when we find several small buyers in emerging markets,” said Sifferath. Council staff will follow up in coming weeks hoping to persuade buyers to act on their new-found knowledge.