US grain sees opportunity in Latin America’s poultry

27-06-2014 | Home | News

In recent years poultry has become the most important agricultural enterprise in Latin American economies with yearly consumption per capita experiencing increases of more than 10% in the last five years. Plus poultry is the dominant consumer of feed grains in Latin America.

Since the expansion of livestock production in feed-deficient countries is a principal driver of growth in coarse grain trade, this sector in Latin America is an important market for US grain exports to the region. Latin American poultry uses approximately 21 million metric tons of feed grains for poultry meat production and 7 million tons for egg production.

The US Grains Council has assessed this trend and is aware that in order for this sector to continue growing, poultry producers in the region need to broaden their knowledge in poultry management and nutrition. To this end, the Council hosted a team of Latin American poultry executives to the United States last week. The team visited US grain inspection facilities, US producers through the Arkansas Corn and Grain Sorghum Board, and university researchers to discuss proper poultry feed formulations as well as modern management practices which could help the Latin American poultry executives maximise profit.

While at the US grain inspection facilities the team gained an appreciation for the marketing programmes and state-of-the-art equipment that is currently being used by the US government to guarantee the quality of the grain that is exported. The other visits highlighted the value-added services that come with sourcing grains from the United States. The team was able to gain an appreciation for the United States being the long-term, reliable supplier of coarse grains and co-products.