Promoting Ethanol Co-products Provides Value
US - Promotional efforts of the U.S. Grains Council have been successful in Japan and Egypt resulting in booming exports of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), an ethanol coproduct used for animal feed.
3 October 2008
2 minute read
Egyptian producers and industry leaders have begun to see positive results in feeding trials in the livestock, poultry and aquaculture sectors. “So far the use of DDGS, up to 10 percent in poultry rations, has had no negative effect in performance,” said Dr. Hussein Soliman, USGC director for Egypt. “The use of DDGS in dairy buffalo has really been effective in reducing the impact of heat stress on milk production.”
Although DDGS has been present in the Egyptian marketplace for the last 18 months, “the acceptance of DDGS in the Egyptian feed industry has not been easy,” said Chris Corry, USGC senior director of international operations for the Rest of the World. “In fact, the Egyptian government prohibited the importation of DDGS as a feed ingredient until just two years ago.”
The Council approached the Ministry of Agriculture and showed how DDGS can help lower Egyptian producers feed costs. In response, the Minister put together a committee to distinguish specifications for DDGS. In less than three months, the Ministry approved these specifications and Egypt began to import U.S. DDGS. “Results like this usually take much longer to transpire,” continued Corry.
“It just goes to show how effective the Council’s DDGS feeding trials are.” Egypt has so far imported 46,200 metric tons of U.S. DDGS in 2008. With a few months still remaining in the calendar year, U.S. DDGS exports to Japan have surpassed last year’s level by 33,654 metric tons. “The increase in the use of DDGS is mainly due to its cost advantage over other feed ingredients,” said Tetsuo Hamamoto, USGC director in Japan. “The Japanese feed industry takes DDGS seriously as a new feed ingredient and tries to adopt it proactively since the industry expects a larger supply of DDGS in the future.”
DDGS workshops hosted by the Council in Miyazaki and Tokyo earlier this year produced results in Japan’s agricultural industry. The Council was also able to assist in registering DDGS with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) as a feed ingredient. In 2004, U.S. DDGS imports to Japan were, minimal importing only 3,074 tons. Since then imports have skyrocketed, increasing by more than 136,000 tons.
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