Forming partnerships with global end-users is absolutely vital to accessing, developing and defending markets for U.S. corn, barley, sorghum and all related co-products. This is a strategic process requiring U.S. Grains Council directors and consultants to gather a great deal of intelligence about specific markets outside U.S. borders.

The main goal for USGC staff is to successfully identify the movers and the shakers in livestock industries all over the world. These export market development experts work on the ground to find the trend-setters, so-to-speak. By working with this small pool of end-users that have solid reputations and the ability to influence, the Council can cause dramatic changes in the entire marketplace efficiently and effectively. During my recent visit to Egypt and Morocco, I saw examples of these instrumental partnerships. The Council, for example, formed a partnership with COPAG, a dairy cooperative in southern Morocco. By partnering with one progressive cooperative with a reputation of fiscal responsibility that embraced change and innovation, the Council was able to demonstrate the benefits of modernizing the ruminant sector in Morocco. "Plant the seed and it will grow," said Kurt Shultz, USGC director in the Mediterranean and Africa. Other dairy and beef producers saw COPAG's advancement and started to follow suit. Not to mention, COPAG has more than 14,000 smaller farms as members of their cooperative who received technical training from COPAG officials, who received hands-on instruction from Council staff and consultants. COPAG corn utilization increased from 600,000 bushels in 2003 to 2.3 million bushels in 2008, plus an up tick in co-products. The Moroccan Feed Millers Association (AFAC) has adopted a five-year strategic plan to develop the ruminant feed market. Since then, commercial ruminant feed production has increased from 150,000 tons in 2003 to 700,000 tons in 2007. This represents an increase in corn consumption by the ruminant sector of 6.5 million bushels per year from 2003 to 2007 or an approximate $21.4 million per year in corn sales. AFAC projects ruminant feed production will exceed 1.7 million tons by 2011 or 18.3 million bushels of additional corn sales. The Moroccan government announced a major new development strategy for the ruminant sector, proposing to double per capita meat consumption by 2020. This all started with one partnership between the Council and one cooperative. The trickle-down effect is occurring in a dramatic way.

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