At the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), President Tom Sleight sums up the importance of export market development in two sentences:

“With four record or near record crops in a row, with prices where they are, with domestic ethanol markets leveling off, international demand is going to be a big driver for the foreseeable future.

The direction from our board and our members is we need new demand, we need demand creation for commodity grains, for corn for ethanol, for distillers dried grains.”

Export market development is “probably more important now than ever before,” agrees Dave Miller, Iowa Farm Bureau...