Corn Mission to Asian Nations to Promote U.S. Corn, DDGS

As a staff member of the Nebraska Corn Board, I have been asked to travel with the U.S. Grains Council on their 2010 Corn Mission to Asia. This year's U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission will explore the Council's success in developing diverse corn markets, from established achievements in Japan and Taiwan to China's emergence as a leading market for distiller's dried grains with solubles and a new buyer of U.S. corn. The USGC has an office in each of the countries we’ll be visiting and we will have meetings with their staff and U.S. Embassy officials.

We will be first traveling to Japan, the largest importer of U.S. corn. Once there, we’ll be meeting with the Japan Feed Manufacturers Association, the Japan Feed Trade Association, the Japan Starch & Sweeteners Association and the Japan Corn Grits Association. We will also be taking a bullet train to visit a Japanese feed mill and possibly see some cattle production in Ishinomaki City.

Then, we’ll hop on a plane to Taipei, Taiwan. Once there, we’ll be meeting with the American Institute in Taiwan, a lunch discussion with traders, buyers and users of U.S. corn, meeting with the Taiwan Feed Industry Association and the Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation. We’ll get to meet with a bioplastics corporation that imports NatureWorks bioplastics made in Blair, Nebr., as well as visiting a sow farm.

Then, we’ll travel to Shanghai, China. We will meet with more trade organizations that import U.S. corn and distillers grains as well as visiting a sea port where corn and DDGS are shipped in, and hopefully see a U.S. corn shipment. Also, we’ll be visiting the Guangzhou Dairy Institute Demo Farm.

Traveling on the mission will be Larry Klever from the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Kent Kleinschmidt from the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, Kenny McNamar and Becky Frankenbach from the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, John Whaley from the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and myself, Kelsey Pope, representing the Nebraska Corn Board.

As a communicator on the trip, I will be regularly blogging for the Nebraska Corn Kernels blog under the tag, Corn Mission 2010, starting November 28th through December 10th. You can also follow the trip through the U.S. Grains Council’s communications at:
USGC Blog: http://www.thegrainboard.com/
USGC Flickr: www.flickr.com/usgc
USGC Twitter: www.twitter.com/usgc
USGC Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Grains-Council/60248643587