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USGC confident in China purchases
A director with the U.S. Grains Council says U.S. corn is highly sought after in China as the country continues to rebuild its hog herd.
Senior director of global programs Cary Sifferath says China has been dominating U.S. new-crop corn purchases in part to meet its Phase One Trade commitments, but also because they just need grain.
“There’s about an $80-100 spread between what I can import U.S. corn into China versus what domestic corn is, so the prices are telling me they need and want this corn.”
He says for the past 13 weeks, China has continued to auction off old grain, at least four or five years old, that’s priced much higher than the 2020 crop from the U.S.
Sifferath says pig prices in China are also very high as herd rebuilding continues following African Swine Fever outbreaks and producers have changed what they feed pigs.
“These big, more sophisticated farming hog operations in China that are rebuilding are going to only corn or feed grain, soybean meal diets, no food waste at all—it’s really driving what’s going on with China.”
China bought nearly 600,000 tons of U.S. corn for delivery this marketing year, bringing the announced total for corn exports over the past few days to more than 2.4 million tons, all new crop, all to either China or unknown destinations.
Sifferath made his comments during this week’s Michigan Corn Between the Rows Tour.
