A grain truck in northwest Iowa.
A delegation of Japanese feed buyers will arrive in Iowa this morning for a three-day trade visit to the Hawkeye State.
Dennis Friest, of Radcliffe, is a member of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and the U.S. Grains Council. He says the delegates will visit the DuPont Pioneer headquarters in the Des Moines area and several farming operations.
“They’re going to stop out at my farm for a few hours and make some more visits in southwest Iowa,” Friest says. “We try to work with these buyers to show them what we do and the quality of product that we grow here and keep our markets open, overseas markets.”
Other stops include the Poet ethanol plant in Jewell, the Ag Partners coop in Ellsworth, the Green Plains ethanol production facility in Shenandoah and a farming operation in Randolph. With a population of 127-million, Friest says Japan is an important market for ag products.
“Japan is the second-largest corn market for the United States, importing over 10-million metric tons of corn,” Friest says. “They’re also the 10th largest dry distillers grains market. They’re a huge customer and have been for many years.” The Japanese delegation represents people involved in corn processing, the feed and corn trade industries as well as a hog and poultry industry journalist. Learn more at: www.iowacorn.org.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)