Ninety-six percent of feed millers in South Korea now include U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in their rations for the country’s livestock and poultry industries, thanks in part to work started by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) in 2004 to introduce this feed ingredient.
How to continue growing this market with nearly 100 percent adoption? Increase average inclusion rates from the current 4.3 percent to the recommended level of 6 percent. To do so, the Council organized a DDGS conference in South Korea on April 25 to provide local millers with additional technical expertise and logistical support.
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The U.S. Grains Council organized the 2017 DDGS Conference in South Korea to provide technical information and facilitate one-on-one meetings between Korean buyers and reliable U.S. DDGS suppliers. |
More than 100 South Korean DDGS buyers, feed formulators, research and development personnel as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) attended the conference. It included one-on-one meetings between U.S. suppliers and South Korean buyers as well as a technical seminar on the nutritional and economic value of U.S. DDGS by Dr. Jerry Shurson from the University of Minnesota. Activities like this conference not only provide valuable education, but also help connect Korean importers and traders to reliable U.S. DDGS suppliers.
“The attendees from the feed industry gave us excellent feedback, reporting that this seminar was timely and very useful,” said Haksoo Kim, USGC Korea director. “Thanks to the Council’s efforts, they now understand the advantages of U.S. DDGS and will increase their inclusion rates.”
South Korea purchases of U.S. DDGS continue to grow. South Korea imported nearly 845,000 metric tons of U.S. DDGS in the 2015/2016 marketing year, up from about 621,000 metric tons the prior year. In the first six months of the 2016/2017 marketing year (Sep. 2016-Feb. 2017), South Korea imported nearly 516,000 metric tons of U.S. DDGS, up 31 percent from the same time period the previous year.
The Council projects that South Korea will continue to increase its imports of U.S. DDGS with the improvement of inclusion rates and more efficient supply systems between U.S. suppliers and South Korean buyers.
Learn more about the Council’s work in South Korea here.
