WORLD HEADS TO SEATTLE FOR EXPORT EXCHANGE 2014

Lindsay Mitchell

Oct 23, 2014  |  Today's News

Nearly 180 international coarse grains buyers from 39 countries spent this week in Seattle, Washington, for Export Exchange 2014, ready to meet with U.S. suppliers and service providers across the value chain.

Export Exchange 2014, co-sponsored by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), is a biennial event aiming to make connections that will build and sustain business in the current market and for years to come.  Your checkoff dollar support of the USGC helps to make these connections happen.

The scheduled attendee list reflects the diversity of customers for U.S. corn, barley, sorghum and co-products, notably distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS), an ethanol co-product that has become a sought-after, high protein feed.

Twenty-six registrants hail from China, 25 from Japan, 21 from Mexico and more from across the globe. As of Friday, Oct. 17, nearly 250 U.S. participants had made plans to attend this year’s events, with on-site registration expected to add to that number. 

“The purpose of Export Exchange is to bring buyers and sellers together,” said Ron Gray, Graymont, IL farmer and USGC chairman.  “The harvest is still coming in, and we are headed for a record corn crop. This is a great buying opportunity, not just for corn, but for all the coarse grains and DDGS. Export Exchange is the place to make vital contacts.”

“Last year alone the U.S. ethanol industry produced more than 36 million metric tons of a high protein animal feed known as DDGS. For context, that would make the U.S. ethanol industry the equivalent of the 4th largest corn producer in the world, behind only the United States, China and Brazil. That, alone, should expose the food versus fuel canard for the fraud it is,” RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen stated. “We welcome our international guests to Seattle and are eager to answer their questions about the capacity, quality and reliability of U.S. biorefineries as a long-term supplier of DDGS for growing markets abroad.”

Export Exchange 2014 was held Oct. 20 to 22 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington.

More information is available online at www.exportexchange.org