Transport sorghum in containers opens industry possibilities

I not long ago wrote about the fascination in sorghum abroad. Our world wide partnerships, notably with China and nongovernmental and other organizations supplying help by way of food aid in Africa, underscore sorghum’s importance not just as a feedstuff but as a very important ingredient of communities throughout the globe.

This twin position — boosting farmer incomes and addressing foods insecurity — highlights sorghum’s potential for making a significant distinction the two domestically and internationally and presents a foundation for optimism as farmers get ready for #plant24. 

This month, I want to carry on that globally concentrated thread and dive a bit deeper into a task in which the sorghum field has taken an expanded role.

As most of my audience know, my consulting organization, Serō Ag Strategies, consults for a number of businesses in the sorghum environment, like a new 501(c)(3), the Collaborative Sorghum Internet marketing Transformation Method (cSmart), which aims to catalyze financially rewarding business enterprise opportunities for sorghum farmers. A short while ago, cSmart has been active in encouraging lay the groundwork for a new support business on the Texas Gulf Coast that will enable facilitate exports. 

The business enterprise is ending up preliminary allowing function and starting to elevate cash, and cSmart is supporting all factors of the startup procedure, which includes initiating networking and generic marketing and advertising activities. The business enterprise is a provider provider that aids get grain — or other agricultural goods as it helps make sense — into containers and onto a vessel bound for international locations. The positives of this tactic are quite a few, but the most substantial for sorghum farmers is the emphasis on little-quantity options. 

Provided the scale of U.S. sorghum manufacturing coupled with the character of need for the crop in far more concentrated current market segments, containers are a fantastic way in which to ship sorghum to our global associates. No matter whether to baijiu producers in China fascinated in a specialty sorghum made and handled in holding with the concepts of identity preservation or a micro-scale meals support opportunity in Madagascar, containers present final versatility, presenting variants in scale from 1 container to an complete ship stacked whole of them.

In addition, they let for bulk commodity grain sorghum to be transported together with finished goods these kinds of as the sorghum-soybean and sorghum-chickpea blends awaiting commercialization and formulated to combat malnutrition in youngsters and susceptible population. 

How will sorghum farmers gain from chances such as this a single?

To start with and most importantly, they’ll gain from additional demand from customers. Much more markets usually imply far more prospect for financial gain, and this is particularly true when the markets in problem are new to the crop.

2nd, I feel sorghum farmers will benefit in another way as perfectly. I want to see them invest in the enterprise by itself — not just in spirit, but also monetarily. I pointed out that the business is now raising funds, and I hope to share additional about that chance shortly. Continue to be tuned. 

Duff is founder of Serō Ag Techniques and serves as a advisor to National Sorghum Producers. He can be achieved by e-mail at [email protected] or on X @sorghumduff.