U.S. Grains Council Working to Expand Mexican DDGS Market

In 2014 Mexico imported more than 1.5 million tons of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), but as end users in the country gain greater knowledge about the product and greater access of the feed ingredient, the market has the potential for growth.

The U.S. Grains Council is working in the southeast region of Mexico, offering nutritional advice and presenting feeding trial results to cattlemen and distributors in the region, including through a presentation in Campeche, an area that is home to an estimated 500,000 head of cattle.

Many smaller Mexican livestock producers and ranchers lack the mixing equipment needed to mix their own feed rations, and the Council met with regional feed mills and companies regarding the inclusion of DDGS in their supplements as a means of increasing DDGS access to more local cattlemen.

One company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to distribute U.S. DDGS throughout the Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz, and the Council is currently training the company’s sales staff on the nutritional profile of DDGS and how to sell the product. Meanwhile, Council staff and its consultants are working to gain additional MOUs with more local distributors in order to gain access for DDGS to the local networks and infrastructure. It is hoped this exposure will raise local awareness of the nutritional profile and benefits of the product, and will eventually lead to millions of dollars of additional exports.