I-LEAD Class Reports from China - Day 6

Today, we started our adventure in the city of Guangzhou.  The weather here is much warmer but was over cast most of the day. We took the bus to the Machong Port. Along the way we saw lots of banana farms.

Once we arrived to the port we were invited to a meeting with two of the port business managers. We discussed the mind boggling numbers of how much grain they want to handle in the near future. They are currently working on the second phase  of expansion that will allow them to handle 8.5mmt annually. While at the port they invited us down to watch, an ocean liner full of US corn unload. Each ocean liner can hold around 2.1 million bushels, and take three days to unload. Chinese Customs weighs and test the grain at this point checking for quality before it gets shipped out over the country. Our trip to the port concluded with dinner with the port managers.


After lunch we attended the Gold Coin Feed-mill. They produce mainly pelleted feed for fish, chickens, ducks, and swine. This was a impressive mass production, fully automated set up.  They convert the raw materials into a pelleted feed in a bag, and they kick out roughly 700,000 mt's annually.  They buy corn from all over, however they currently had US corn, and for the first time in China we were able to get our hands on some US corn! There was also a significant amount of soybean meal from Cargill in their warehouse.  

Next on our list was to make a stop at the Sinograin facilities.  This is essentially government run grain storage. These facilities are a very impressive set up. They are able to hold roughly 20 million bushels. The only three crops they handle are corn, soybeans, and wheat. When they need to distribute gran from these facilities the are able to do so form barge, rail, or a truck. Sorting that we all found very interesting is that once their grain bins are full they put nitrogen gas inside and seal it up.  This removes the air inside the grain which carries moisture.  So in turn they are able to store grains for a longer period of time.

For the evening night cap we had dinner with the Ag business leaders in the area.  This was very interesting, and we all had a variety of experiences. It was just a very good way to hear there opinions on common topics that come up today in agriculture.  Today was another big day for a group, and again we all had many experiences that we will never forget!