News

Organic corn import gap narrowing

An ag economist says organic corn imports this year are expected to be the lowest in eight years.

Ryan Koory with Mercaris tells Brownfield organic corn imports since the 2016/2017 marketing year have dropped by about 25 percent and are expected to total 17 percent of total demand for the 2020/2021 marketing year.

“We’re beginning to enter a phase in the U.S. organic corn market where we’re really become self-sufficient in terms of domestic production,” he says.

He says improving conventional corn prices has softened the market some this year as well as the increasing domestic organic supply.

“There are lots of factors that indicate that we’re going to see some pretty substantial growth in organic feed demand in the U.S. over the next few years and that will likely boast that premium back up,” he says.

Koory points to more companies, like Bell and Evans and Cargill, announcing efforts to increase organic acreage to also help close the supply gap which he estimates is less than 60,000 acres.

However, organic soybeans have not seen the same reduction in imports and Koory expects USDA’s National Organic’s Program ending its trade agreement with India this year, the nation’s largest organic soybean meal importer, will cause challenges for the sector.  About 70 percent of organic soybeans and soybean meal is imported into the U.S.