Grain to the Saudis

Corn for camels. Idaho grain producers may have an opportunity to open a whole new market. Believe it or not, farmer Marty Amundson hosted a delegation of grain buyers from Saudi Arabia on his farm. It turns out that the Saudi’s have great interest in buying corn and other grains from us and Lord only knows they have the money. “There were five individuals from three different dairies and one feed mill company. I was very impressed with the people. They could speak English very well and we had a very good conversation about corn and soybeans and how to grow these crops. They don't grow corn over there, they buy it from us. They did not want to look at machinery. They wanted to go straight to the field, look at the corn plant, and try to understand how it goes from being planted in May and then it is 8 to 10 feet high about two months later. They were totally amazed by the old process. They talked about how much they process feed. They run 78,000,000 bushels of corn through their mill per year and they are looking to double that in 2015. Right now they run 37,000,000 bushels of corn from the United States through that mill and they want to double their production and they want to get most of their corn from the United States. Out of the feed mill they feed mainly dairy but they also feed goats and camels.