Last week, U.S. Grains Council (USGC) staff and members traveled across Europe and the Middle East to present the results of the Council’s 2024/2025 Corn Harvest Quality Report to international buyers, end-users and industry stakeholders from Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region.
Staff based in the Council’s regional office for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) along with U.S. agribusiness representatives and Texas Grain Sorghum Producers Association members traveled to Belfast, United Kingdom, Madrid, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey for the events. The group of experts gave their perspectives on the crop’s quality, talked about market outlooks for corn, sorghum and co-products and international freight and risk management.
“The Council’s various quality reports are a service to the international agricultural industry and to our global partners, and it means a lot to them for USGC staff to present the information in person and address any questions or concerns they may have,” said Ramy H. Taieb, USGC Regional Director for EMEA. “As the Council strives to develop markets and foster customer loyalty, one of the first steps is the Council showing its commitment to these markets by providing timely, detailed analysis of the products on offer for the current marketing year (MY).”
This year’s rollout events reached representatives from European countries that received 80 percent of total U.S. corn exports to the area in MY 2023/2024. Similarly, those countries plus Turkey were the destination for more than 80 percent of the more than 2 million metric tons of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and corn fermented protein (CFP) exports to the MEA region in the last MY.
At each event USGC Deputy Regional Director for Europe and the Middle East Ana Maria Ballesteros offered an overview of the 2024/2025 U.S. corn crop’s attributes and Reinis Bekeris, execution and sales specialist at StoneX, a Council member, discussed worldwide grain supply and demand dynamics.
Additionally, John Hagios of The Andersons, Marc Hathaway of The Scoular Company, and Diaa Ghaly of Trans Globe, all Council members, spoke about the availability of U.S. corn co-products including DDGS and CFP. USGC Manager of Global Trade Jace Hefner also touched on opportunities in the sorghum sector with Texas Sorghum Producers Association Executive Director Wayne Cleveland.
The events were an opportunity for USGC Deputy Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Salah Bouthour to highlight the Council’s recent study analyzing the superior performance of U.S. corn in feed milling when compared to corn from other origins, to promote U.S. corn sales in the global region.
The agenda in the final stop on the program, Istanbul, included additional topics of relevance to customers in the region including advanced storage practices, trends in freight and shipping logistics, DDGS’ application in aquaculture and uses for artificial intelligence in feed processing.
“The UK, Spain and Turkey and the surrounding region show a lot of potential for U.S. agricultural products, especially in feed ingredients like DDGS and CFP, so it was important to include programming focused on those areas that buyers and end-users are interested in,” Ballesteros said.
Learn more about the Council’s work in Europe here.
About The U.S. Grains Council
The U.S. Grains Council develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. With full-time presence in 28 locations, the Council operates programs in more than 50 countries and the European Union. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture’s profitability. Detailed information about the Council and its programs is online at www.grains.org.