The U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC) Annual China Corn Tour currently underway is finding big demand for the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains for livestock feed in that country.

According to Cary Sifferath, USGC Senior Director in China, drought conditions in China this year have led to high corn prices. “Those high prices have led to some opportunities for US feed grains products, specifically distillers dried grains (DDGS) products from the US ethanol industry,” Cary said. “We had roughly 8,000 metric tons of DDGS that was exported from the US into China and right now for 2009 we can easily predict 250,000 to 300,000 tons of distillers dried grains being imported by China’s feed and livestock industry, especially in the southern and coastal areas of China where DDGS has become a very competitive feed ingredient.”

Drought conditions in some areas of China are expected to result in crop losses of up to 50 percent this year.

Pictured in the photo are Sam Niu, USGC assistant director for China, Sifferath, and National Corn Growers Association board member Guy Davenport of North Carolina.