Corn farmers from Iowa to host Mexican grain buyers

Visits taking place prior to the U.S. Grains Council Export Exchange

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Representatives from five Mexican grain importers will visit four Iowa farms and plants this week, prior to participating in the U.S. Grains Council Export Exchange.

The tours begin in Farnhamville on Wednesday at Landus Cooperative, the largest farmer-owned local agricultural cooperative in the state. The reps will then make their way to the Poet Ethanol Plant in Gowrie and the Pro Cooperative in Havelock. They will finish the day with a tour of Jerry Maier’s farm, who’s also a director with the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA).

Maier hopes showing the visitors Iowa’s successful agriculture could lead to more opportunities for U.S. grain.

“We’re thrilled to host this team in an effort to further develop and strengthen the relationships between Mexican corn and distillers grains buyers and U.S. grain suppliers, and are hopeful our efforts will result in more sales of corn and distillers grains to Mexico,” Maier said in a release.

On Thursday, the Mexican importers will visit the Maxyield Cooperative and Ag Partners feed mill. Friday will take them to Innovative Ag in Hubbard before visiting ICGA director Danny Friest’s farm and Heartland Coop.

Maier said Mexico is the largest customer of American agricultural exports and that the country has come to rely on the quality and quantity of products produced by U.S. farmers.