This week, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Market Development Manager Michael Granché attended the Chicken Marketing Summit, hosted by the National Chicken Council in Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Participants covered a wide array of topics spanning animal protein demand to trade outlook reports and from sustainable poultry production to a panel discussion on broiler welfare; all while defining opportunities for post-pandemic success.
“As more organizations and sectors within the agriculture industry continue to set their focus on developing sustainability goals, it becomes increasingly more important to cultivate and lean into partnerships, so that together we can tackle our sustainability goals successfully while feeding an exponentially growing population. It was great to meet with industry folks again in person and to help tell corn’s story,” said Granché.
Through this partnership, NCGA is promoting poultry product exports while reminding organizations that corn is multifaceted. Not only is corn a quality and abundant feed, but DDGS products, including high-protein DDGS for poultry, are optimized feed products that the poultry industry can benefit from. The summit was also an opportunity to remind corporate attendees that corn is competitively positioned as an industrial feedstock to help advance bio-based renewable packaging solutions.
As one of the keynotes of the meeting, the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs (US-RSPE) announced that the US-RSPE Sustainability Framework is now open for public comment and discussed how it was built specifically to meet consumer needs to see sustainability reporting from end-to-end of the supply chain. The Framework and its multi-stakeholder development process were designed to specifically tackle the complexities of chicken, turkey and egg organization structures and full supply chains.
“It was great to see NCGA represented at the summit and engaging with the poultry sector,” said Ryan Bennett, US-RSPE Executive Director. “We know we must work together across the entire value chain to drive progress and continuously improve our sustainability, and that includes sourcing sustainably grown, high-quality feed for poultry. There is great opportunity for U.S. corn growers and poultry producers to work together to drive progress.”