Agricultural News
U.S. Grain Council's Ryan LeGrand Covers U.S. Corn's Record-Breaking Export Year
Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:42:53 CST
Much talk of record exports numbers has gone around beef circles, but have you heard that 2021 has also proved itself a record year for U.S. grain exports? That is right! Ryan LeGrand, president and CEO for the U.S. Grains Council and Oklahoma State University alumnus, caught Radio Oklahoma's own KC Sheperd up on this year's export numbers.
"We just had a record year for corn exports, at about 70 million metric tons," LeGrand said. "We have never exported that amount of corn before."
Grain Sorghum exports and distillers grains exports are also through the roof, according to LeGrand.
"Mexico just broke a record for importing more than 2.1 million tons of distillers grains," LeGrand said. "Right now, things are pretty good on the export front."
Because exported grains are transported via massive, bulk-carrier sea vessels - different than ships carrying cargo containers - sea-port backlogs felt by other industries are not being felt nearly as much by USCG.
Like with U.S. meat exports, China was the main importer of U.S. grains overall since 2020, according to LeGrand.
"China came in and shattered all the record books for corn," LeGrand said. "They imported about 21 million metric tons of corn. No country has ever done that before."
Behind China, Mexico followed tradition, being a large importer of U.S. corn. Japan, South Korea and Colombia are also among the top five importers of U.S. corn.
While U.S. corn exports are exploding, Vietnam, the largest importer of corn in Asia, recently cut corn tariffs in half, opening another huge market.
Hit the LISTEN BAR below to hear KC Sheperd and Ryan LeGrand talk about what a fantastic year 2021 has been for U.S. grain exports.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
