The 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 …
New Shipping Port In Morocco
Morocco is nearing completion of a major new port facility south of Casablanca. The El Jaddah Port was one of the stops for the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission. While there we met with Ammar Bouchaib, pictured left, who is not only involved in shipping grain into the country but also has a large storage facility for feed products. I …
Morocco Ag Attache Working For U.S. Agribusiness
The Regional Agricultural Attache for the United States in Morocco is Hassan Ahmed. I first met Hassan when he was posted to Cairo and I was traveling on a USDA FAS trip that included stops in Cairo and Alexandria. I haven’t seen him since then until today but we still remember the “camel story” among others. Some of you have …
Morocco’s Office of Cereals
The Moroccan government’s “Office of Cereals” is led by Mr. Abdelali Aziz, General Director (pictured center). He spoke to the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission this morning about the status of corn imports into Morocco and touched on quantity, quality and standards. He also commented on the impact of the USGC’s programs on the poultry and beef sectors. He says, …
Growth of Grain Imports In Morocco
The Director for the Mediterranean and Africa for the U.S. Grains Council is Kurt Shultz. He’s been our main guide and font of information so far. I spoke with Kurt this morning to get an overview of agriculture in Morocco and the potential it holds for U.S. grain producers. He says that the USGC became involved in Morocco about 15 …
Optimizing Corn Yields Report from AGMasters
Since the students did such a great job of blogging the AGMasters Conference, I am just going to re-post a few of their posts here, instead of doing it myself. See photos from the conference on the AGMasters Photo Album This one was written by Megan Ott and Jared Roskamp: Participants from this year’s AGMasters Conference had the privilege to …
Meet The USGC Corn Mission Team
Here is the 2009 U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team. Ready to rumble in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. This photo was taken today in Frankfurt airport. We have arrived at our first Moroccan destination and are getting ready for a meal and initial briefing on our activities. I’ll know more in a little while and will be posting some more …
Kelsey Pope Joins Nebraska Corn Board
The Nebraska Corn Board welcomes Kelsey Pope as their Ag Promotion Coordinator. In this role, Pope will work on behalf of Nebraska corn producers to expand marketing opportunities, partner with livestock industry groups to develop joint strategies and assist in coordinating animal agriculture welfare programs through education, information and research. She will also coordinate corn promotion activities at the State …
Getting Ready For A Corn Mission
The Grain Board will be one of the locations you can follow the upcoming U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission. What’s that? It’s going to be me traveling along with growers and organizational representatives from Virginia, Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Missouri to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. We’ll be seeing the USGC in action and I’m along to help document …
Cruising to Commodity Classic
Registration is officially open for the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California and you better register soon because it will fill up fast. This will be the 15th annual Commodity Classic for soybean, corn, wheat and sorghum growers and their families, to be held March 4-6 right next to Disneyland. The theme for 2010 is “Cruising to Success.” Growers who …