January 29, 2013
BY Erin Krueger
The U.S. Grains Council has issued its 2012 Annual Report. The document includes success stories from the year, as well as market profiles from more than 25 countries and regions. The market profile pages feature supply and demand charts, data on market growth potential, and other sources of information.
"Since the Council was founded 52 years ago, we have focused continuously on building markets and expanding trade opportunities for U.S. farmers and agribusinesses," said Don Fast, USGC chairman.
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One highlight of the year cited by the USCG was its successful work with Algeria and Morocco to get the value-added tax and custom tax removed on all feed imports. Those taxes put a damper on U.S. corn, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), and corn gluten feed exports. According to the report, the USGC worked with local feed industry in Algeria to successfully remove those barriers. In Morocco, the council worked with the feed milling association and government officials to find a way reduce the value added tax.
In addition, the council responded to a trade-disrupting issue in Vietnam that involved a shipment of DDGS that contained insects on the country’s quarantine list. “While understanding quarantine can be necessary, the council took the opportunity to ensure trade rules were followed and to educate import inspectors about DDGS,” said the USGC in the report. “Work also began to remove DDGS from quarantine product list, a longer-term goal that will provide benefits for exporters, importers and country’s booming feed sector.”
Additional successes cited by the council include China terminating its anti-dumping investigation against U.S. DDGS, and Canada agreeing to delay grain import requirements.
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According to the USGC, China was the top DDGS customer in 2012, representing 29.6 percent of exports. Mexico was next, with 20.3 percent of U.S. DDGS exports. Canada, Vietnam and Korea rounded out the top five, taking in a respective 8.5 percent, 6 percent and 4.5 percent of U.S. DDGS exports.
The entire report is available on the USGC website.
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