3-28 FB Japan Grain

The U.S. Grains Council is keeping a close eye on its largest corn and second-largest barley and sorghum market as it begins its recovery process from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated eastern Japan. While no official reports on total grain trade impact have been made known to the Council, major importing facilities in northern mainland Japan have been severely damaged by the natural disaster, causing some to be not operational for the time being. The affected area accounts for roughly 30 percent of Japan’s 25 million metric ton total compound feed production capacity. While the extent of actual damage is still being assessed, much of the damaged capacity is being covered by facilities coming back online and by increased production by feedmills in unaffected areas.Here’s Travis Jones, Executive Director of the Idaho grain producers Association: “At this point we haven’t heard of any disruption however we know that Japan is a major trader with Idaho for wheat and barley as well but at this point we don’t have any numbers about actual disruption of Idaho grain sales to Japan.