November 5, 2007

High demand for US corn in Egypt

Egypt is importing more corn this year and a bulk of it came from the United States, the US Grain Council (USGC) said on November 1.

Dr. Hussein Soliman, USGC director in Egypt said total corn exports to Egypt from October 2006 to September 2007 reached 4.5 million tonnes (178 million bushels) compared with 4 million tonnes of the same period. The US market share is 75 percent and Argentina is the main competitive supplier at 20 percent, he said.

Soliman also noted that imports of corn products are also strong with corn gluten meal (CGM) imports increasing by 40 percent from the 69,000 tonnes to 97,000 tonnes for the same period over last year. Of that, 98.6 percent is US origin and 1.4 percent from China. Egypt, which began importing corn gluten feed (CGF) this year, received 50,638 tonnes of CGF between July and September.

In addition, imports of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) reached 38,000 tonnes for the first nine months of the year - all from the United States. Two additional DDGS shipments are expected to arrive in December. Soliman said Egypt could import up to 400,000 tonnes of DDGS, CGM, CGF and value-enhanced grains by 2011.