Vietnam purchases U.S. corn for first time

Vietnam has purchased U.S. corn--a first time ever event--marking increased demand for feed grains in that country. The sale was revealed by the U.S. Grains Council after returning from the Joint Officer's Mission to Vietnam and China recently.

The 5,000 metric ton (196,840 bushels) purchase was made by Lai Thieu, a private company with three feed mills in Vietnam. The company currently imports U.S. distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and U.S. soybean meal and has sales volumes topping 30,000 tons monthly.

"We were very excited to see the contract for the July-August delivery purchase," said Davis Anderson, USGC chairman. "U.S. corn is quite competitive right now and there is no Chinese corn available for import. Additionally, the owner told us that she was looking to diversify her supply sources and naturally looked to the United States due in part to the work done by the U.S. Grains Council."

Vietnam currently produces about 4.5 million tons of commercial feed annually, with the potential to reach 10 million tons as the livestock sector continues to commercialize. Domestic corn production is 3 million tons, of which virtually 100 percent is finding its way into feed. An additional 200,000-250,000 tons (7.9-9.8 million bushels) of corn is being imported for feed. With that great potential for future imports in mind, the Council has been actively working to capture that demand. Nguyen Kim Anh, the director of the Lai Thieu feed mills, has been involved in several Council programming efforts, in particular the organization's DDGS educational promotions and in-plant nutrition and ration formulation consultations.

"We have developed a strong and solid relationship built on trust and confidence with this buyer as a result of our many one-on-one meetings and visits by Council staff to her production facilities where we worked with her employees on ingredient purchasing and feed formulation," said Kim Rameker, USGC's regional director for Southeast Asia. "As a result, we're happy that the buyer has shown stronger interest in the United States with her purchases, first with DDGS and now with corn. If this first shipment of corn goes well, I think they will continue to look to the United States for their future corn needs."

The U.S. Grains Council estimates that Vietnam's demand for corn imports could grow by 8 percent annually.

"Yes, we view this first purchase as an important step toward more imports of U.S. corn by Vietnam," Anderson said. "Vietnam is in a deficit situation when it comes to corn and we have been there working to capture that demand as it develops."

Date: 7/27/06

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