USGC Office in China Promotes U.S. Corn in South China Market

The success of the U.S. corn export system has been built on a tradition of quality, reliability and transparency in the marketing system. The U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) staff in Beijing, China has worked for more than 40 years to build partnerships with importers based on trust and to act as a bridge between U.S. producers and end-users in China.

The Council recently held a seminar in Guangzhou, China to discuss global corn supply and demand and the latest information regarding the domestic corn market in China with feed millers, importers and end users. The event was one of several rollout programs around the world in support of the detailed and timely data provided to customers in the 2022/23 U.S. Corn Harvest Quality Report.

Manuel Sanchez, USGC director in China, kicked off the seminar and highlighted that this year’s corn crop has a higher average test weight, higher protein concentration and lower total damage relative to the average of the previous five crops.

“The Council’s annual Corn Harvest Quality Report is always eagerly anticipated by importers around the world,” Sanchez said. “It’s important to promote the availability of this information here in one of our largest markets to maintain the solid relationships and credibility the Council and U.S. producers enjoy in China.”

Topics at the seminar included a rundown of the Corn Harvest Quality Report, which discusses how cool temperatures early in the year caused delays in planting, but May’s warm weather allowed farmers to catch up and the corn crop matured at near-average pace. Customers echoed similar comments during the conference, and attested to the superior quality of the 2022/23 U.S. corn crop as they had just received a Panamax vessel of U.S. corn.

Following Sanchez’s presentation, Darin Friedrichs, co-founder and market research director at Sitonia Consulting, offered the attendees his perspective on the global grain and oilseed outlook.

Friedrich’s presentation covered the global grains markets, including U.S. sorghum and noted that corn from northern China shipped to the south may be less cost-effective than other feed grains and co-products, such as sorghum, barley, peas, broken rice or tapioca. Van Ye, a grain market analyst at CHS Inc, wrapped up the seminar by presenting Chinese domestic corn supply and demand.

Van Ye shared that in spite of increased corn production, there is still a deficit of more than 10 million tons in the the Chinese feed grain industry.

This was the first physical meeting hosted by the USGC’s office in China following the recent wave of COVID-19 that affected China at the end of 2022 and it attracted more than 50 industry partners at the event.

“It’s fantastic to have face-to-face conversations with Chinese importers again after so many periods of uncertainty caused by the pandemic,” Sanchez said. “Our staff members in China look forward to many more events with local partners and end-users in the coming year.”