<b>By ANN HINCH<br>
Assistant Editor</b> </p><p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. — American sorghum growers have found an unexpected boon in orders from the European Union (EU), as have their counterparts growing other commodities, owing to weather problems in some of the EU’s 27 countries last year.</p><p>
In its December World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, the USDA projected a higher season-average price for sorghum, raised 20 cents on both ends of the possible range, to $3.20-$3.80 per bushel. Part of this is probably because of EU interest in the crop, which the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) reported should result in its member countries needing to import 118-157 million bushels in the 2007-08 marketing year for feed grains (it had imported 63 million in 2007, as of early December), as well as also needing to import just under 400 million bushels of corn.</p><p>
Kurt Shultz, USGC director in the Mediterranean and Africa, explained the grains situation across Europe in 2007 has been “radically different” from past years. Corn production was down in Romania and Hungary because of drought, while in western Europe, some countries received too much rain that damaged wheat and barley. He said the EU also has much tighter stocks than at the same time in 2006.</p><p>
“Traditionally, the EU feed manufacturers use a lot of wheat in their formulations,” Shultz explained, adding the EU often produces a surplus of wheat.</p><p>
But last year, he said its exports had actually been down seven million metric tons, re-flecting decreased production.</p><p>
He estimated EU countries may import 17 million metric tons of grains this year, including sorghum from the United States and corn from Brazil and Argentina.</p><p>
To that end, he said the EU has also removed its import tariff on sorghum, at least until this June.</p><p>
Some countries that sell their non-genetically-modified (GMO) corn to the EU – which shuns the technology – sometimes buy GMO corn for their own use from the United States.</p><p>
Also, Mexico, which was formerly a big sorghum customer, is now buying more U.S. corn instead.</p><p>
USGC President and CEO Ken Hobbie explained with the shortage of feed grains, those produced within EU member countries have gone up in price. That, coupled with the weak U.S. dollar, means that “essentially, we were told U.S. sorghum is the cheapest grain in Europe at this point,” said Shultz, especially in comparison to EU wheat and corn.</p><p>
USGC chairman and Texas sorghum producer Dale Artho said this is not surprising, since the crop costs significantly less than corn to grow and can adapt to drier weather better than, say, corn. </p><p>According to his figures, there is one sorghum grower in the U.S. for every 500 corn growers.</p><p>
“The European reluctance to adapt to technology has really been a problem in production,” said Dale Murden, president of the National Sorghum Producers (NSP), who was part of a USGC delegation that traveled to Europe in November to learn more about the grain shortages firsthand.</p><p>
He said this does give American farmers a competitive advantage in the global marketplace, but creates problems for European farmers, such as decreased production and rootworm problems with continuous corn, for example. Shultz added that such “inefficiencies” have kept many growers employed, though Artho said his experience was that in some countries, it’s less the EU farmers who are anti-GMO than their government and some scientists.</p><p>
“It’s refreshing to know that producers are producers anywhere you go in the world,” Artho said.</p><p>
Shultz added he believes the EU has “painted themselves into a corner” with respect to GMO corn. </p><p>
Besides global trade competition, he said it’s difficult to provide its member countries their corn needs just with what’s imported from South America, not to mention to meet Kyoto Treaty requirements for increased biofuel production each year. (NSP CEO Tim Lust did point out the EU has a 10 percent fallow field set-aside program which does make exception for growth of crops for biofuel, so that’s not so much a problem.)</p><p>
Added to that, he said, is the fear of EU ag ministers that their livestock will not be competitive with production of other countries and that EU member countries could lose up to 30 percent of their hog and poultry production.</p><p>
He said their feeling is “if we don’t produce the livestock here, someone else will, with GMOs (feed) … and we’ll be eating it.”
Because the USGC does expect the EU to be a long-term customer for this commodity, Lust said, “As we look at the next couple of years, how is U.S. sorghum priced compared to EU wheat and barley (for feed)?” Hobbie added the USGC needs to continue educating northern European farmers – which haven’t yet bought any – about the benefits of sorghum. The U.S. exports about 50 percent of its sorghum; traditionally, Mexico and Japan have been the big customers, according to Lust.</p><p>
A decade ago, he said it was used mostly for swine feed, but poultry has become the biggest eater since. Ethanol producers are also interested in the commodity.