First
Iraq Corn Shipment Offers Promise for Corn Growers (1-14-04)
The National Corn
Growers Association (NCGA) has expressed optimism for future export
markets amid reports of a 32,000 metric ton shipment of U.S. corn
to Iraq that occurred this week.
Doug Boisen, chairman of the NCGA and U.S. Grains
Council Joint Trade Policy A-Team, said, “This shipment represents
an excellent first start at rebuilding the economy of Iraq, and I
hope it is the beginning of many more corn sales.”
Boisen, a Nebraska corn grower, said today’s
U.S. corn producers enjoy a much healthier export market than they
did several decades ago.
“The whim of one government can no longer affect
total corn exports the way it did in the early to mid-‘70s when
we basically had just two major export customers,” noted Boisen.
“Every overseas market, large and small, is important to U.S.
corn producers. This initial sale to Iraq, though not large, represents
a great first start. And little sales have a way of building up to
larger sales.”