Kansas Corn hosts ethanol officials from South Asia: India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Kansas Corn is hosting a group of government and industry officials from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Kansas to demonstrate aspects of the ethanol industry from field to fuel pump.The group is taking the Kansas tour before they head to Washington D.C. to the Global Ethanol Summit. The summit will dive deeper into topics from octane to regulations, changes in the industry and opportunities for increased ethanol imports from the U.S. Attendees from all over the world will attend the summit. The summit is designed to bring together buyers and sellers together in one place to learn, network and work to increase sales of U.S. ethanol. Greg Krissek, Josh Roe and Stacy Mayo-Martinez from the Kansas Corn staff will be attending to continue to build relationships.

The focus on south Asia is a strategic focus for Kansas Corn.  The Commission works to build markets for corn in all forms, and that includes corn, red meat, ethanol and DDGS. For the last 10 years, ethanol has been the fastest-growing U.S. agricultural export, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. India is a key growth market for ethanol. Ethanol exports to India totaled $271 million in the past marketing year and are up 37 percent to $243 million for the first eight months of the 2018/2019 marketing year. From a volume standpoint, exports to India are up 37 percent from 2017/2018’s 165 million gallons. India is the world’s fourth largest feed producer and home to the world’s largest dairy herd.

“We are seeing unprecedented expansion of export markets for ethanol and DDGS in the past few years. India, in particular, is an extremely promising export market for ethanol and DDGS. This trade team visit is a continuation of our efforts to build markets for our products in India as well as neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Kansas Corn CEO Greg Krissek. “Last year, we hosted a trade team from India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, and we’re supporting DDGS feeding research in India to build markets as well.”

The Council has worked for more than 20 years with the Indian feed, starch, energy and dairy industries. Thanks to funding from the Kansas Corn Commission, USGC established a dairy research and training facility in Kaira District, in cooperation with Amul Dairy.

“In addition to the growing demand for ethanol in India, there is a real future for DDGS exports to provide high-nutrient feed to dairy heifers,” Krissek said.

The Indian market has the potential to import more than 700,000 metric tons of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) annually, but technical barriers exist. The Council continues to work with the industry and USDA to address these barriers and open this large potential market to U.S. exports.