Evening star., 1947-09-28
PRESIDENTS COMMITTEE ON
FOREIGN AID,

CoILC11N ALL.
1947-48 Grain Procurement Program.
/. The Urgency of the Problem:
World requirements for grain dur
ing the current 1947-48 season can
not be met without the export from
the United States of a larger ton
mage than was exported in the 1896
AZ crop year. Yet in the face of the
expanded requirements it would be
extremely difficult for the United
States even to maintain last sea-
sons rate of export because of the
reduced size of this years corn crop.
No more corn will be available for
export during the present crop year.
How much wheat we can acquire
and export depends primarily on
how much is fed to livestock, poultry,
dairy, hogs and beef. Poultry
men, dairymen and meat animal
feeders are currently making their
decisions on whether to trim down
the numbers in their herds and
f1ocks or to acquire feed to carry
them through the year. AS the
weeks pass, more and more of our
wheat supply is being acquired for
eventual consumption by livestock,
thus increasing the difficulty of
meeting our export needs.
If the Department of Agriculture
merely covers it's needs from month
to month, situation will probably
lauolNrN I'll in, rr,l1i nh -
will by physically impossible to meet
even reduced export commitments.
1t is, therefore, essential that a firm
export program be formulated in
the immediate future and that pro-
curement plans be made which will
assure our ability to meet whatever
export commitments are undertaken.
This interim report of the Presi-
dents Committee on Foreign Aid is
submitted to convey the committees
judgment on certain of the issues
involved, to draw attention to the
basic questions that need to be
answered and to urge the Importance
OF reaching decisions upon them
now.
2. West European Requirements.
The basic facts about European
requirements for imported grain are
these: First, Western Europe is
regularly deficit area heavily de-
pendent upon imports of grain for
human consumption and. for animal
feeding. Before the war, grain inn.
ports averaged over $4,000 900 tons
a year, about half bread grains and
half coarse grains. Second, the re-
covery in agricultural production
since the war has been uneven and
incomplete. In the ex-neutral coun-
tries and in Norway, the Neither
lands and the United Kingdom food
and feed grain crops in 1916 were
above preWar. But in the other
Central and Western European ex-
belligerent countries (Which are
much more important grain pro-
ducerS) 1946 grain crops were only
about 80 per cent of prewar. Third,
adverse weather conditions in 1947
reduced Western European grain
crops some 100000 tons below those
OF 1916. consequently, to maintain
the same level of diet Gin terms of
calorieS per person per day. as in
the season just ended, imports of
grain into Western Europe would
have to be 100000 tons larger. The
graih production and imports of the
Western European countries are
summarized in the following figures:
The 1947-8 import requirements
stated in this table are the amounts
necessary to maintain the total
grain availability in 1918 at the
same level as 1867. (The countries
included are the Paris Conference
countries other than Iceland, Tur-
key and Portugal and with the addi-
ton of the three Western zones of
Germany