The El Niño weather pattern has impacted corn yields in Argentina and Brazil, which has sparked buyers’ interest around the globe in U.S. corn.

“Our members who are traders are hearing from export destinations that they rarely hear from,” said U.S. Grains Council (USGC) Manager of Global Trade Alvaro Cordero. “This is creating excitement in the market and is a great opportunity for us to reach out to markets like Japan, Taiwan and Korea that have been buying a portion of their corn needs from South America in recent years.”

These mature markets are dynamic and tend to make buying decisions based on opportunities in the market.

“The current market conditions are creating an opportunity for the United States this crop year,” Cordero said. “However, while this chance to increase U.S. market share will alleviate some of the strain of the big, upcoming U.S. corn crop, it wouldn’t fix the large ending stocks we have.”

That’s where the Council’s market development work in markets around the world comes in.

“I was in the United Arab Emirates a few weeks ago, meeting with buyers to try to spark their interest in U.S. corn,” Cordero said. “That’s the kind of work we do. The Council staff travels to places where buyers traditionally haven’t show interest in U.S. corn for various reasons, like if they buy through traders who may not even offer U.S.-sourced corn as an option. We work to change the multinational buyers’ opinion of U.S. corn through on-the-ground efforts.”

Click here to watch a video on how corn planting in the United States this year.