Checkoff Grows Export Market for U.S. DDGS

Illinois corn checkoff investment in the U.S. Grains Council has helped build a robust global market for U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) worth more than $2.24 billion in 2019.

This important market empowers ethanol plant profitability and maintains ethanol markets for corn, which consume 40 percent of U.S.-grown corn each year.

As competition and volume have increased in the ethanol industry, DDGS sales have become an increasingly important profit center as well as a much-demanded feed ingredient by buyers across the globe. 

The U.S. Grains Council’s work with DDGS export market development began in 2003 when its Board of Directors voted to launch a robust, worldwide marketing program for the product involving marketing seminars, buyer education, feeding trials and bi–annual buyer conferences to bring customers together with U.S. suppliers and technical experts.

Learn more about the work of the U.S. Grains Council