Category Archives: Grains

More Grain Storage Needed In Jordan

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Corn MissionThe USDA Ag Specialist on the ground in Jordan is Mohamed N. Khraishy. He took time to meet with our Corn Mission team after we arrived this afternoon. He says that he acts mainly as a facilitator on our behalf or as he puts it, “See me as the grease between the wheels.”

I recorded part of our discussion with Mohamed for you to listen to. He says that quality doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for feed grain imports but that price does matter. The global economic recession has had an impact even here. He’s afraid that we might see a short term decline in American grain imports. To avoid fluctuations in the market he sees a real need for more storage facilities. He fields lots of questions about finding an American company that may want to invest in storage here in Jordan.

You can listen to part of our discussion with Mohamed below:

USGC Corn Mission In Jordan Photo Album

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Marketing Grain To The Middle East

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Corn MissionThe Regional Director for the U.S. Grains Council coordinating our Corn Mission visit to Jordan is Joe O’Brien. Joe covers the Middle East and part of India.

He says that Jordan is “one of the bright spots of the Middle East.” There are biotech issues in the region though, especially toward Turkey and India. He says it’s a very competitive market with recent pressure coming from the Black Sea area. During the next couple days we’ll get to see a Jordanian dairy and meet with the poultry industry.

You can listen to my interview with Joe below:

USGC Corn Mission In Jordan Photo Album

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Corn Grower Says “Show Me” The Market

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Corn MissionFellow Show Me State resident and corn grower from the southeast part of Missouri, Jim Stuever, took a few moments to provide his thoughts on how the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team is doing after arriving in Amman, Jordan. In the photo, Jim (pictured left), is listening to a presentation we’re having from Mohamed Kraishy, USDA Ag Specialist in Jordan.

Jim has seen a very diverse set of conditions from country to country as we’ve traveled. That means that market development efforts are going to be very different in each country too. After seeing the USGC “on the ground” he says that they’re increasing the environment for corn and corn by-products which is helping keep our markets viable. Jim thinks that corn grower investment in the USGC reinforces and increases foreign market use of American feed grains.

You can listen to my interview with Jim below:

USGC Corn Mission In Jordan Photo Album

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Producer Thoughts On Egypt

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Corn MissionThe U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission Team has concluded visiting Egypt. Tomorrow it’s on to Jordan. Before finishing today we sat down for our debrief which includes documenting our observations and making recommendations based on what we saw. Those will be provided to USGC in the form of a final report. I have updated the Eqypt photo album from our visits today.

To get some producer feedback on our time in Egypt I interviewed Darren Armstrong, North Carolina. Darren says the biggest thing you see immediately is the potential. He says that in just a couple of years we should see significant growth. He says we need to keep our quality up and take care of the market by supporting Dr. Soliman, USGC Country Director. He thought the feedlots we visited were well taken care of and are becoming more efficient. He’s glad to see how ddgs have been so well accepted here and that is good for American producers. He says it’s, “been like a look back in history.” He compares where a lot of the Eqypt countryside is with where we were at in America not that long ago.

You can listen to my interview with Darren below:

USGC Corn Mission In Egypt Photo Album

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Dr. Soliman Is Face of USGC In Egypt

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Corn MissionThe face and voice of the U.S. Grains Council in Egypt is Dr. Hussein Soliman pictured in the center of our Corn Mission group while visiting our last stop in the country. He has been working on behalf of U.S. grain producers for almost 20 years and has not only seen Egypt become one of our top importers but can take a lot of the credit for helping make it happen. You won’t find anyone more passionate about what he does. All of us on the team are very appreciative of his assistance and guidance while visiting this week.

I spoke to Dr. Soliman while we were at one of the Mirhom Farag Farms, owned by Suzanne Basilios, also in center of the photo. She treated us to a wonderful meal at her dairy and I’ll have a video clip of it coming up soon.

Dr. Soliman provides a very good summary of the work the USGC has done in Egypt and the results he’s seen over the years. The market is far from mature and in fact will grow tremendously, especially when the poultry sector gets back to normal. In the meantime, the biggest opportunities lie in beef and dairy production.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Soliman below:

USGC Corn Mission In Egypt Photo Album

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Egypt Grain Inspection Lab

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Corn MissionThe Executive Director of the Regional Center For Food and Feed is Dr. Mohamed F. Emara. He was our host this morning for a tour of their Grain Inspection Lab. I remember touring the lab on my trip here with USDA back in 1999. RCFF operates three regional feed grain laboratories, one in the Giza headquarters, one at EI-Oekheila Port in Alex­andria, and one in Port Said.

Dr. Emara says they’re responsible for quality control of ingredients imported from outside Egypt and produced inside the country. About 85 percent of the yellow corn they inspect is imported from the U.S. He says that since they started testing over 10 years ago, rejected shipments have decreased significantly which means Egypt is receiving better quality grain. The U.S. Grains Council was instrumental in helping get this lab established by providing technical assistance during the original development process.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Emara below and watch a portion of our presentation in the video:

USGC Corn Mission In Egypt Photo Album

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Survey Finds Support For Corn Ethanol

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corn Despite the movies such as Food, Inc. and King Corn that discredit the corn industry and blame the obesity epidemic on corn-based products, a recent study shows that the general public supports corn for food and fuel. Check out the details below…

A nationwide survey conducted for the National Corn Growers Association found broad public support for corn as a food sweetener and for corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel.

The survey found 67 percent of respondents supported the use of corn as a sweetener and 65 percent supported using corn to make ethanol. Of those who supported corn for ethanol, 34 percent mentioned reduced dependence on foreign oil, 19 percent cited its potential to create new jobs and 16 percent said they liked its environmental benefits.

Ninety-five percent of the 1,000 U.S. voters surveyed said they supported corn for food for people and 93 percent said they supported its use as animal feed.

The survey was conducted in mid-September by David Binder Research and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent. For more information, visit www.ncga.com.

World Food Prize Winner

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ejeta-gebisaGebisa Ejeta, Purdue University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy plant breeder and geneticist, will receive the World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed common on the African continent. Because of Ejeta’s efforts, sorghum yields are significantly higher in many African nations.

The World Food Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of agriculture, will be presented to Ejeta during an 8 p.m. EST ceremony in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines today, Oct. 15.

“For so many Africans, this award projects so much hope to a continent that has so much negative news,” Ejeta said. “This is a shining moment for a continent.

“The journey has been so far to where I am now, but I am so driven. Serving humanity means so much to me.”

Sorghum is an important cereal grain to Africa, but arid conditions and the deadly Striga make growing the crop difficult for farmers. Read more about Ejeta’s life and research in the fall issue of Connections, Purdue’s agricultural alumni publication.

Grains Council CEO Looks Back and Ahead

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Ken HobbieKen Hobbie has been with the U.S. Grains Council for 34 of the organization’s nearly 50 year history and things have changed quite a bit over those years.

“When I first came to the council, we were focused on two primary market regions, Western Europe and Russia, they were taking more than 50 percent of the grain that we exported on an annual basis,” Ken told me during a short interview at the council’s 49th annual delegates meeting last week in San Diego. “The significant change that I have seen is the growth in developing markets around the world – southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East. If you had told me when I started that they were going to be the focus of our attention for the next 20 or 25 years, I would have said you were crazy.”

Ken announced his plans to retire as president and CEO of USGC last year and will be doing so as soon as his successor is chosen. He believes that the grains council is a very unique organization. “The idea that producers from corn, sorghum and barley, agribusiness leaders from most of the major companies, have for almost 50 years now, been able to sit in a room and concentrate on doing one thing well together, which is developing export markets, has been a fantastic combination,” Ken says. “I hope that my successor and those that come in future generations will find it as exciting and rewarding as I have.”

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to my interview with Ken here:

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Students Share Experiences of Grain Mission Trip

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Amy Berry and Michelle Euken The U.S. Grains Council’s 49th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting luncheon on Monday featured two college seniors who shared their experiences as participants of the recent International Collegiate Agricultural Leadership (I-CAL) annual mission to Vietnam and China.

Amy Berry, senior at the University of Wyoming, and Michelle Euken, senior at Iowa State University, told more than 300 attendees of their “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity as two of twelve top U.S. agricultural students from eight different states who were selected for this year’s I-CAL program, a cooperative effort of The Grains Foundation and the National FFA Organization intended to help educate future agricultural leaders about export market development.

“The I-CAL program is an awesome opportunity for students to get involved overseas and really learn international markets and opportunities abroad,” Michelle told me after their presentation.

“The work that the Grains Council does is real and it helps producers here by thinking globally and solving problems that producers couldn’t do alone,” Amy says. “It definitely changed my perspective.”

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to or download my interview with Amy and Michelle here:

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Being Part of the Journey

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Lori TiemannOne Nebraska farmer’s wife got a greater appreciation of the impact U.S. agricultural producers have on the global economy when she was able to be a part of America’s Heartland “Journey of the Corn.”

During the spouses breakfast at the U.S. Grains Council delegates meeting on Monday, Lori Tiemann shared some of her journey to Taiwan and China with her husband Alan. “I did not know what happened to our grain after it left Nebraska,” Lori said. “It was amazing.”

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to or download my interview with Lori here:

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Opening New Markets is Focus of USGC

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Rick FruthRick Fruth is a corn grower from Ohio who serves as vice chairman of the US Grains Council and he says the continuing development of international markets is the main focus of their organization.

“We’ve seen markets back in the 70s that were very important to us – western Europe and the former Soviet Union – evaporate and we’ve had to replace those with new markets,” he told me. “It’s not something you can accomplish overnight, it’s something you have to have a long term strategy for and that’s what we continue to do.”

Rick also talked about the importance of the partnership between USGC and USDA FAS. “It’s extremely important to us as producers. It’s the cornerstone of what enables us to function in international market development.”

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to or download my interview with Rick here:

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USGC Partnership with USDA FAS

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Michael MichenerThe administrator of USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service Michael Michener spoke to the US Grains Council delegates meeting this morning in San Diego about how the partnership between FAS and USGC helps to open markets for US agricultural products.

“Over the years, FAS and the U.S Grains Council have formed a vital link between government and U.S. agriculture to maintain and expand exports of corn, barley and sorghum,” said Michener. “According to an independent study conducted by Informa Economics last year, the Council created $659 million for U.S. agriculture or $37 for every dollar invested. This is a remarkable return on investment for any government program.”

Michener also reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to address pending free trade agreements and revitalize the Doha Round. Read more from the US Grains Council here.

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to or download Michener’s remarks here:

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Grains Council Delegates Meeting

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USGCGreetings from San Diego! I have been from the white beaches of Panama City, to the Mile High City of Denver, to the beautiful bay in San Diego – all in one week!

I am here to cover the U.S. Grains Council 49th Annual Board of Delegates meeting and to speak at a break out session on social media. Chuck was supposed to do it, but I am a last minute fill-in as he is still trying to get over a bad case of pneumonia.

We’ll be blogging and tweeting here and on the USGC blog The Grain Board – so stay tuned.