Corn Comments featuring Ryan LeGrand, President and CEO of U.S. Grains Council

Welcome to Corn Comments, brought to you by the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, a group of volunteer farmers working to market and promote corn here in this state, across the country and around the globe. I’m Ryan LeGrand, President and CEO of U.S. Grains Council.

There’s been some great things happening regarding commodity export trade promotion with the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announcing a two point three billion funding commitment from the Commodity Credit Corporation., $1.3B of that commitment will go towards the promotion of exports of American Agriculture products and the remaining $1B is to be used to purchase surplus commodities from the American producer. Over the next five years, this funding will help enable the U.S. Grains Council’s work on emerging international markets, including non-tariff trade barriers such as biotechnology, or the expansion of existing opportunities, such as ethanol exports to Japan.

Corn exports are an important part of the mission of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council and the U.S. Grains Council appreciates the prioritization of these efforts and the partnership we have with growers here in the state.