By USGC staff
U.S. Grains Council (USGC) leaders closed out a successful year with a trip to Senegal last month to examine the results of recent training and market development programs the Council sponsored during the past five years to learn more about the local agricultural industry and relevant domestic policies and understand how the Council can continue to support economic growth in the region.
USGC Past Chairman and Indiana farmer Josh Miller joined USGC Chairman Brent Boydston; USGC Vice Chairwoman Verity Ulibarri; USGC Secretary-Treasurer Mark Wilson; USGC President and CEO Ryan LeGrand; USGC Senior Director of Global Strategies Kurt Shultz; USGC Director in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Ramy Taieb and USGC Deputy Directors in EMEA Mohamed Salah Bouthour and Ana Maria Ballesteros.
“My experiences on the Council’s board over the past few years have opened my eyes to the truly global scale of the agriculture industry,” Miller said. “Developing meaningful business relationships with international buyers and producers builds long-term markets that delivers high-quality resources to consumers and increases profits for U.S. farmers in Indiana and beyond.”
The delegation met with USDA officials, domestic feed producers and poultry farmers in Dakar to better understand their working practices and the demands of the Senegalese market. The team then visited several poultry producers who previously participated training programs at the Council’s Feed Training Center in Tunis, Tunisia to see how they apply those lessons to improve their business practices.
The group then met with feed industry representatives who had also attended training courses with the Council that now import U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as a result.
The visit concluded with discussions with the Senegalese Ministry of Livestock to gain a different perspective on the agriculture industry’s needs to support the region’s rapid growth and what the Council and its collaborators can provide as the Council prepares to ramp up its programming in West Africa during the next five years.
“I really appreciate the diverse group of industry stakeholders we were able to speak with during our time here, from individual farmers all the way up to government officials,” Boydston said. “This ensures that the Council sees the full picture in this market and can tailor its work to assist each working part of the Senegalese agricultural industry.”
The USGC develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. With full-time presence in 28 locations, the Council operates programs in more than 50 countries and the European Union. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture’s profitability.
Detailed information about the Council and its programs is online at www.grains.org
