02/07/05 Grains Council annual meeting

02/07/05 Grains Council annual meeting

Farm and Ranch February 7, 2005 Members of the U.S. Grains Council are currently in Huntington Beach, California for the organization's annual meeting. The council does export market development work for barley, corn and sorghum. Ken Hobbie, President and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council, says those attending are getting a first hand look at several important industry issues. Hobbie: "We are constantly looking at what are the forces that are driving the marketplace. This year like others it is things like the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations and that is probably followed closely by the changing patterns and the development of demand and export markets that we see occurring throughout the world, and we hope to focus on those topics at our meeting at Huntington Beach." Hobbie says that increased competition in the export marketplace will get particular attention. Hobbie: "And that is one of the things that we will be focusing on at our meeting, is that our programs are tweaked in the ways that will provide the greatest benefit to the people and the checkoff boards that are investing in our programs." And as for those checkoff boards like state barley commissions for example. Hobbie: "The checkoff boards come in and through their representatives on the Grains Council's Board of Directors and through our A-Team process, are able to help direct the efforts of the Council so that we maximize the investment that those checkoff boards are making." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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