Export opportunities for the livestock feed co-product of ethanol production are increasing as the industry continues to grow. That was the main message to more than 500 who attended the second the U.S. Grains Council’s International Distillers Grains Conference this week in Indianapolis.

“The reason we’re holding this conference is that we are confident the U.S. ethanol industry will continue to grow due to efforts undertaken by the National Corn Growers Association and state producer organizations over the last several years,” said USGC president and CEO Ken Hobbie. “Due to the efforts of U.S. growers to establish the ethanol industry, we made DDGS our top priority in 2006 and since then have seen DDGS exports exceed 2 million metric tons annually.”

Senior Vice President of Informa Economics Scott Richman told the conference that as a result of the growth in the U.S. ethanol industry this year, 22.8 million tons of DDGS were available for global use in 2007/2008 marketing year, nearly a 50 percent increase from the 2006/2007 marketing year. He said the 2008/2009 marketing year, which just began on Oct. 1, will likely experience an additional 50 percent increase in the availability of DDGS, reaching 31.3 million tons.

“There will be a substantial amount of DDGS available for global livestock industries,” said Richman. “The U.S. Grains Council’s efforts promoting U.S. DDGS and opening several new markets across the globe is helping the U.S. ethanol industry in a big way.”

According to Informa, ethanol production this year is expected to total 9.3 billion gallons and projected to reach 11.9 billion gallons in 2009.