北米における穀物集荷業者の動向と展望

In the 2000s, food supply and demand in international markets changed from surplus to shortage, and international food markets experienced price fluctuations. Japan’s government set the guideline for Facilitating Overseas Investment for Food Security in 2009, which announced a policy to pursue import stabilization and diversification in order to secure a stable food supply.<br>This study focuses on grain collection in the USA, especially via local grain elevators which deal directly with producers, in order to reveal the recent trends, prospects and implications for a stable food supply to Japan. Case studies were conducted in Iowa, USA, where the highest production of corn and soybeans has been recorded among the states. The survey was conducted by a series of interviews, consisting of telephone and interview surveys with 30 elevators, an additional interview survey with 5 elevators, and another interview with a Japanese trading company’s subsidiary in the USA, from July to September 2010. The main findings are as follows :<br>First, the share of agricultural cooperatives in grain collection is extremely high in Iowa. The reasons are : (1) historical factors, especially their long and strong history ; (2) geographical factors, with railways being the main means of transportation ; and (3) the cooperatives’expansion strategies in recent years.<br>Second, the selection of business partners by local elevators depends on their business affiliation. Subsidiaries of Grain Majors (e.g., ADM, Cargill) tend to sell their grains to parent companies. Agricultural cooperatives and independent elevators have various partners, and their main buyers are domestic, whom they can serve by using trucks and railway transportation. The elevators are seldom concerned the final destination or intended end usage of the commodity.<br>Third, most of the local elevators do not utilize Identity Preserved (IP) handling to deal with non-genetically modified (non-GM) grains.<br>Fourth, Japanese companies do not have much of a presence among the elevators in Iowa. However, elevators in general are positive about a tie-up with them if there is an opportunity for profit.<br>From the findings above, the implications of this study are as follows :<br>The relationship between agricultural cooperatives and Grain Majors is considered as a business partnership. It is presumed that the grain collection controlled by agricultural cooperatives will continue in areas like Iowa where the investment efficiency is low. In these areas, well-constructed sharing roles have been established between agricultural cooperatives and companies involved with processing or exporting businesses.<br>With respect to grain flows, it was observed that corn flows in particular are becoming increasingly complicated. Corn can be shipped to domestic and overseas feed markets as well as ethanol plants. This indicates that local elevators have an increasing number of buyers they can sell to Japanese trading companies are not likely to invest or buy out the share of local elevators of agricultural cooperatives. Even if they buy out elevators to build their own collection network on their own, they will not always obtain the grains as each elevator pursues its own profit maximization with various partners. In other words, utilizing an in-house collection network by Japanese companies would not always result in expanding Japan’s grain supply.<br>Considering the above-mentioned circumstances, we conclude that the pattern of grain flows, wherein agricultural cooperatives collect the grain from producers and Grain Majors process and transfer it to Japanese companies for exports, will be stable. There are limited possibilities for Japanese trading companies to establish grain collection networks on their own, which may or may not result in a more stable food supply to Japan.