As the traditional top buyer of U.S. corn, Japan is a critical export market for U.S. farmers. With continued diversification of its sourcing from countries like Argentina and Brazil, however, quality remains a top concern.

In an effort to maintain this important relationship and foster ongoing communication between producers and customers, the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) Washington, D.C., office hosted Japanese feed industry leaders and domestic partners for a corn quality meeting on Monday, July 11.

The delegation included representatives from the Japanese Feed Manufacturers Association (JFMA), the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations (Zen-Noh) and the Japan Feed Trade Association (JFTA) as well as partners from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) and the North American Export Grain Association (NAEGA).

The meeting, hosted annually since 2009, addressed topics ranging from corn grade factors and moisture to chemical composition and physical factors.

“U.S. farmers want to work to maintain their reputation as the primary supplier of corn to Japan,â€� said Tom Sleight, USGC president and CEO, addressing historical data and general safety questions. “We have yearlong conversations with our Japanese buyers and welcome their feedback on what they are seeing in shipments of U.S. corn.”

The 2015/2016 marketing year saw record high yields and better-than-average quality across most attributes measured in annual USGC corn quality reports. USDA-FGIS hopes to see similar trends this year in part because of good weather so far in the crop season.

Despite minor concerns, the Japanese delegation seemed pleased with U.S. corn exports overall. In response to the delegation’s proposed efforts to harmonize recognition of quality, the Council and NAEGA agreed to discuss a potential vessel sampling and monitoring project focusing on U.S. corn shipments to Japan.

USGC continues to build on its outreach efforts in Japan with regular U.S. producer missions to Japan and trade team travel to the United States by members of the Japanese industry.

USGC works closely with 29 different states to report to customers globally on corn quality at the time of harvest and at export. Accurate and timely information on crop quality helps buyers make better informed decisions, increases confidence in the capacity and reliability of the market and assists nations around the world in achieving food security through trade.

The current editions of USGC corn quality reports are available here.