Good news on export front
BLOOMINGTON – The executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association considers the record corn exports a good thing.
Rodney Weinzierl was pleased to hear the news late last week of China purchasing more corn. Mexico and other traditional customers have also been involved.
“We are expecting record corn exports this year mainly due to China going from very little corn purchasing to being our largest customer,” Weinzierl told The Central Illinois Farm Network.
Meat exports are also doing well and domestic ethanol consumption keeps gaining back ground from the dip which occurred at the start of the pandemic.
Illinois Corn continues to monitor happenings at the national and state levels which impact farmers. Weinzierl sees opportunity in the infrastructure discussions taking place. ICGA has been advocating a long time for waterway investment and progress is being made in that direction.
Weinzierl expressed concerns over what he considers the uneven playing field of light-duty transportation fuels – namely bio-fuels and electric. ICGA continues to watch this closely and is trying to even everything out.
“We are very concerned about some of the tax ideas to help pay for this program and how it will effect not only family farming but any small business out there is really going to struggle,” noted Weinzierl.
Discussions are already underway on the next farm bill which is expected to be in late 2022 or 2023. ICGA will focus more on this heading through the summer and into fall.
“Things continue to move and we are doing the best we can to help rural Illinois and agriculture,” Weinzierl said. “At the end of the day, we hope we’ll be better off.”
More information on the Illinois Corn Growers and the issues the organization is working on can be found on an up-to-date website found at www.ilcorn.org.
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