09/07/06 Grain Customers

U.S. grain customers look for reliable supply. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Representatives from five U.S. Grains Council member organizations are visiting Japan and China for the 2006 Corn Mission. Jayne Glosemeyer of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and Missouri Corn Merchandising Council is one of those representatives. She says Monday was a busy day in Japan GLOSEMEYER: We had the opportunity to meet with three different groups in Japan. The first was the Japan Feed Trade Association and the second was the Japan Starch & Sweeteners Industry Association and then we had the opportunity to meet with ZENO which is the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association. According to Glosemeyer - these meetings with international customers of U.S. products are not only important to U.S. growers - but to the international customers themselves. After all - she says discussing concerns face-to-face is a benefit to both sides... GLOSEMEYER: It gives the Japanese traders and business people here the opportunity to talk one-on-one with us to understand some of our agricultural concerns. And it is very good for us in the respect that they are our number one market for our grains and we can one-on-one discuss with them what they are looking for specifically in what we are raising. On Monday - Glosemeyer says members of the Corn Mission team heard about the importance of a reliable grain supply and non-GMO products...tape GLOSEMEYER: They have expressed concerns about the availability of our crops because of our ethanol industry and we have assured them that as growers we will be able to provide a good, steady supply of grain even though our ethanol industry is growing. They also have a concern about the non-GMO products and we've explained to them the added work that we have to go through in order to provide them with that type of products and that eventually if they want us to provide the non-GMO, they're going to have to put a nice premium on it for us. The 2006 Corn Mission moved on to China Wednesday. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.