Casa Grains, consistently one of the top three Moroccan importers, buys corn, sorghum, wheat, soybeans and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in large enough volumes to justify contracting for its own freight. By helping Casa Grains move to FOB purchasing, the Council is also helping the company manage freight costs and control where its grain originates.

“We met with shippers, brokers and owners at the Connecticut Maritime Conference last week,” reported Alvaro Cordero, USGC manager of international operations, who piloted Casa Grains’s CEO through a week of intensive meetings. “We also visited grain suppliers such as Louis Dreyfus so Casa Grains’s CEO could be confident they will sell to Casa Grains on an FOB basis.”

The tour ended in Costa Rica, where Casa Grains’s leader met with officials at El Surco, a conglomerate of dairy cooperatives, feed millers and soybean crushers, which has successfully imported from the United States on an FOB basis for the past three years.

“It was extremely valuable for him to sit down with Costa Rican counterparts who have gone through the learning process and become successful buying FOB,” Mr Cordero explained. “We took the opportunity to demonstrate the high quality of this year’s US crops. Costa Rica buys solely US corn and DDGS, and Casa Grains’s leader felt much more comfortable about quality after seeing a 42,000 ton vessel deliver a mixed load of US grains.”

The schedule also included Costa Rican dairy and poultry producers who are using US DDGS on a daily basis.

“It was an opportunity to reinforce our programmes for corn, sorghum and DDGS,” said Mr Cordero. “Casa Grains’s CEO was very complimentary. We look forward to seeing more FOB purchases of from Morocco”