[caption id="attachment_6373" align="alignright" width="1014"]
Ryan LeGrand, USGC President and CEO[/caption]
After the challenges of 2020, looking forward to the new year is a welcome change – even if most in-person activities remain restricted in the United States and the markets in which the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) works. Here, we look to the future with Council President and CEO Ryan LeGrand to get his thoughts on the organization’s priorities during the coming months.
We’ve officially turned the calendar to 2021. Where do you see us going in this new year?
The reality is that most of our day-to-day operations will be about the same as they have been until COVID-19 vaccines are widely distributed. Our team members globally have been mostly teleworking since March, with a few exceptions in markets that restricted activities earlier, like China, and those that have had the virus under control enough to allow for at least periodic in-person activities or office work, mostly in Asia.
We are fortunate to be able to be flexible with how our team works together and puts on programming for stakeholders, and we’ve learned a lot about moving meetings, consultations and even trade teams into virtual environments. The reality is that we will continue with that for the time being, and travel will be on hold for some time.
We never actually stopped activity; in fact, some parts of what we do have only gotten busier from the day our staff packed up to work from home. But the format is different, and when we emerge from this, we will have many new ideas and options to carry into the future, too.
A new U.S. president will be inaugurated in a few weeks. How does that affect USGC’s market development work?
Our market development work won’t change with the change in administration; we have worked day in and out through all kinds of political scenarios for 60 years. That said, the Council will need to ensure that President-Elect Biden’s team hears and understands our priorities for the continued expansion of exports of barley, corn, sorghum and the value-added feed and fuel products we promote overseas. Our products face many tariff and non-tariff barriers to entry into foreign markets, and we will be working with the new administration in hopes of improving global market access for them. See details...
Source: Online/SZK
Comment Now