Iowans Participate in the U.S. Grains Council Corn Harvest Quality Report - Day 2

Our group met with the Council of Agriculture, which is the equivalent of our USDA. We met at length with two Deputy Ministers as well briefly with the Minister of Agriculture (comparable to Vilsack). They asked questions about our farming methods, grain storage, and GM crops. They also asked about ethanol production and supply. We assured them there would be plenty of corn in 2014, weather permitting, since last year was not the best year.  We shared information regarding price and production estimates.


We then met with Food China, which is a large company/coop that imports corn via containers returning from US. They represent many smaller livestock producers that go together to buy feed. They like U.S. corn the best, but we have lost market share in the last two years only due to price.

Closing out the day was the Grain Quality Conference where more than 80 grain buyers, feed millers, and officials attended. The 2014 Corn Harvest Quality Report was presented via powerpoint, as well as our presentation regarding corn farming practices. There were many questions of our farmers and it was very valuable to have the farmers at this conference; they were very interested in this information.
Points we took away: 

• All Taiwan buyers appear to prefer US quality, if the price is close.
• They have had some bad experiences with other countries' corn delivery time and quality.
• We believe we have a chance for a strong rebound of US corn purchases in 2014.