Recent trade tensions have hit the dried distiller’s grain market hard. Prices for the U.S. corn byproduct used in animal feed have dropped to the lowest they’ve been at for this time of year in a decade. Earlier this year, China imposed import tariffs on the product, slowing American exports to the world’s largest market. A Bloomberg Report says the tough stance on trade by the White House is making things risky for DDG sellers. Any threat to crop shipments means inventories, which are already piling up, will continue to expand. Other countries have stepped in to make purchases but they won’t be able to fill in the gap left by China. “There’s no home run out there like China,” says Kurt Shultz, Senior Director of Global Strategies at the U.S. Grains Council. “U.S. agriculture is dependent on trade. If we don’t have all the doors open to trade that we can, we put the farm economy at risk.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.