We hear a lot about the blend wall for ethanol in the United States market, but there’s also a wall that the ethanol co-product Dried Distillers Grains (DDGS) in hitting with the livestock industry.

“We’ve already run into a feed wall,” says Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “While domestic markets for DDGS continue to expand, quite frankly we’ve grown that market pretty rapidly over the last several years and the opportunity for continued expansion domestically are fewer and farther between.”

So expanding export markets for DDGS is important for the U.S. ethanol industry, and that opportunity is substantial. “We are exporting more and more DDGS these days,” Dinneen says. “But more needs to be done to get suppliers and buyers together.”

And that is why RFA is working with the U.S. Grains Council on the 2010 Export Exchange in Chicago next month and why Dinneen believes it is a must-attend event for ethanol producers. “Because DDG marketing is so important to the bottom line of an ethanol producer. About 40 percent of your feedstock costs can be recovered in the marketing of DDG,” Dinneen said.

The Export Exchange is being held October 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Hotel in Chicago, Ill. More information and registration is available on-line here.

Listen to Bob Dinneen’s interview about DDGS and the Export Exchange here: Bob Dinneen Interview