A major factor is the drop in Chinese purchasing. While China’s July imports were up almost 38% from June, they were still well below sales for the same period last year.
The USGC said that worldwide, sales of U.S. DDGS for the first seven months of 2011 totaled 4.4 million tonnes, valued at more than $1 billion. The biggest buyers are Mexico, China and Canada, followed by Vietnam and South Korea.
“Within Southeast Asia, U.S. DDGS shipments are up 7% to Indonesia, 13% to Vietnam, 69% to the Philippines, and 128% to Malaysia,” Yusupov reported. “Sales are down 2% in Thailand, where the government introduced new import requirements for feedstuffs, including DDGS. Importers of U.S. DDGS will have to submit information on the product and its origin to obtain a license.”
The new rules also set a minimum protein level of 26% (measured at destination) for DDGS imports.
“We have notified USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) office in Thailand that this could potentially limit U.S. DDGS exports to Thailand, and FAS will consider this issue as a subject to raise with the Thai government,” Yusupov said.
According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance, U.S. DDGS sales to Japan in the month of August 2011 account for a 81% U.S. market share that totals 11,681 tonnes.
Accumulated volume of U.S. DDGS exports to Japan in 2011 (January-August) enjoyed a 93% U.S. market share with a total of 223,850 tonnes.
The USGC’s Japan office organized four DDGS seminars in September, specifically focused on total mix ration (TMR) for dairy and poultry feed. The seminars attracted local livestock farmers and technical service researchers as well as feed manufacturers and wholesalers. Through these seminars and other USGC programs, the council aims to expand the market of producers who independently mix feed ingredients by including the TMR feeding system, in addition to the market for compound feed manufacturing.
