U.S. feed grains exports approach record levels

Exported feed grains from the United States reached their second-highest total on record in the 2014-15 marketing year.

The United States Grains Council (USGC) estimates 100.1 million metric tons of U.S. feed grains in all forms were exported, up 800,000 tons from last year. This includes corn, sorghum, barley, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), corn gluten feed (CGF), corn gluten meal (CGM) ethanol as measured in corn equivalents, meat and poultry as measured in corn equivalents, and processed-feed grain products.

There is an increase in demand overseas for United States corn as an animal feed, an increase demand for United States ethanol for foreign countries to use in industry and fuel, and an increase in United States meat and poultry exports to developing countries.

To expand and take advantage of increased sales in the grain market, the United States grain industry supports trade agreements such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which expanded the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States and Mexico to include Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

These broad marketplace trends also call for support of market development programs, part of the United States farm bill and support work done around the globe from organizations like the USGC, the Market Access Program (MAP), and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program.