Brazil is expected to ship its first bulk cargo of DDGS to China this week, with another 52k tons in the lineup for March. The start of Brazilian shipments could mark the start of larger Chinese DDGS imports after relatively small volumes in recent years.
The US previously exported large volumes of DDGS to China, with a peak in 2015 of 6.5 million tons, representing 51% of US DDGS exports that year.
China’s Ministry of Commerce started an anti-dumping campaign against US DDGS imports in 2016, and in early 2017 announced anti-dumping duties of 42-54%, effectively stopping the trade.
The timing of the investigation and decision is also notable because it was after China ended its temporary reserve stockpiling of corn. Around that time, the government was promoting domestic corn processors, and blocking DDGS imports would be supportive for domestic producers.
More recently, in January 2023, the Ministry of Commerce announced that the anti-dumping duties on US DDGS would remain in place for an additional five years.
From China’s side, DDGS imports have declined in recent years and totaled only 3k tons in 2025.
Imports have also been nearly exclusively from the United States. Since 2017, 99.7% of imports under HS Code 23033000 have come from the United States.
In a recent report on the Brazilian ethanol sector, USDA FAS notes that Brazilian DDGS production has risen from 1.2 million tons in 2019/20 to 4.2 million tons in 2024/25, with 79% being consumed domestically.
The largest export markets in 2025 were Turkey, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Spain.