The U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC) corn export quality report for the 2016/2017 marketing year is now available for international grain buyers, end-users and other members of the corn value chain, offering confirmation of the high quality of the most recent U.S. corn crop.
“The United States is proud of its ability to provide export customers with commodity corn in a timely and consistent manner year after year,” said Chip Councell, USGC chairman and farmer from Maryland, in the report’s greeting. “The Council is committed to continuous export expansion based on the principles of mutual economic benefit and increased food security through trade.”
This deep-dive report provides quality information from corn samples collected during the standard federal inspection and grading process for U.S. corn shipments. It is the sixth in an ongoing series, conducted with consistent methodology that allows stakeholders to track the variability of quality characteristics within key export areas.
This year’s analysis found the average aggregate quality of the corn assembled for export early in the 2016/2017 marketing year was better than or equal to U.S. No. 2 on all grade factors, and average moisture content was below that in 2015/2016.
Chemical composition attributes indicated higher protein, lower starch and higher oil concentrations than 2015/2016. Early 2016/2017 corn exports had lower stress cracks and higher density than in 2015/2016.
The export cargo quality report's release follows the publication of a harvest quality report focused on the quality of grain in the 2016/2017 crop to the point of unloading at a local grain elevator.
That report revealed the U.S. corn crop benefited from excellent conditions during reproductive growth, as well as high yields, particularly from the western Corn Belt.
The resulting quality of the 2016 corn crop was better than average of the previous five crop years on most attributes, including higher average test weight, kernel volume, oil concentration and whole kernels as well as lower broken corn and foreign material and stress cracks relative to the five-year average.
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