Expanding markets for ethanol is a key priority as the U.S. Grains and BioProducts Council elects its new chairman. Jay Reiners stepped away from day-to-day farming after 35 years on his central Nebraska farm to focus on international issues. He says the council is busy given the administration’s strong emphasis on trade.
“It’s made our overseas offices jump up and down because now everyone’s, I mean, yes, they did a lot of legwork talking trading all that stuff, but now the administration is actually pushing it. So yeah. We’re busy. We’re very busy.”
His theme for the year is “Feeding and Fueling the World”. He says it’s easy to focus on planting and harvest and miss the end users of U.S. corn, ethanol, DDGs, sorghum, and barley.
“Especially as farmers we get in our tunnel vision, you know, we have corn or soybeans to plant, harvest. We get in our daily grind and then we kind of forget where our end product actually goes to. And that is one thing that is vitally important is to understand: yes, crop prices suck now, inputs are high, lada-da-da-da, but you have to remember we have end users overseas that appreciate what the American farmer does for not only their companies but their countrymen also.”
The Grains Council recently added “BioProducts” to its name. Reiners said the goal is to open doors with international customers and government officials who are focused on energy, transportation, ethanol, distillers grains, bio-chemicals and bio-plastics — not just traditional grain trade.
“As the traders and government officials in foreign countries get older and retire, there’s a whole new group of youngsters coming up or brand-new industries, and it’s like: Why are we talking to US Grains Council? What do you have to do? We don’t deal in grains. Because there’s a whole gamut of things. So, BioProducts Council came into play not only the ethanol and DDGs but also, we got the future of biochemicals and bio-plastics and all that. So, hopefully the name change will last for the next 30–40 years.”