Could US regain top corn exporter title in 2024?

Oct 13, 2023

The United States lost the title of No. 1 corn exporter to Brazil last year when the South American country harvested a breakthrough crop, just months after China gave the green light to Brazilian corn imports.

As such, Chinese interest in U.S. corn has slowed significantly in the past year or so, but Brazil’s next corn harvest is expected to be smaller than its recent one, potentially allowing plentiful U.S. supplies to regain share in global trade.

Prolonged dryness in the United States this year prevented what surely would have been a record corn harvest, though plentiful acres still allowed the 2023 crop to rise 10% on the year, approaching all-time highs. This should restore comfortable U.S. supply levels.

However, crop ideas for Brazil and China in 2023-24 vary across the industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday maintained 2023-24 Brazilian corn production at 129 million metric tons, identical to the initial May projection. That is down from a record 137 million tons in 2022-23.

Click here to see more...

Video: Understanding the Basics of the Renewable Fuel Standard

On Friday, April 24, 2026, from 12 noon–1:00 ET, the Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law, alongside the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s (PDA) Agricultural Business Development Center (ABDC), presented this webinar in the Understanding Agricultural Law Educational Series, a course designed to develop subject matter literacy and competence on fundamental issues of agricultural law for attorneys and business advisors who work with or represent agricultural or rural clients but may not necessarily specialize in agricultural law:

“Understanding the Basics of the Renewable Fuel Standard”

The Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, or advanced biofuels. Established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and later expanded by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the RFS is implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

This webinar provides an overview of the legal authority and structure for the RFS program and explain how it works, including the program’s system of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) and categories of renewable fuels. Additionally, this webinar addresses EPA annual volume requirement rulemaking and associated recent legal issues.