March 8, 2011

US corn sales to Egypt increasing

As Egypt recovers from downtime and shipping delays caused by demonstrations and political unrest in late January and February, sales of US corn to Egypt have been strong in recent weeks, according to the US Grain Council (USGC).

Dr Hussein Soliman, USGC director in Egypt, said local corn prices increased by a large margin during the unrest. Now, as ports catch up and shipments restart, corn prices are decreasing to a more regular level.

According to the Foreign Agricultural Service reports, sales two weeks back increased substantially from one year ago, with 609,000 tonnes of corn sold to Egypt. Despite the unrest, US corn sales to Egypt have been doing well the entire marketing year, reaching 1.6 million tonnes thus far; a far cry from the 884,000 tonnes a year ago at this time.

Due to the high prices of corn during the period of unrest, livestock feeders not using US distiller-dried grains with soluble were enticed to add the ingredient into their rations. Terry Vinduska, chairman of the US Grains Council said that end-users in all sectors are using US distiller-dried grains with soluble now, including the dairy and beef sectors that were limited in the past.