By STEVE BINDER

Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Thompsonville farmer Larry Miller, who oversees about 600 acres of corn and beans each year in southern Illinois, knows the math well.

“If we could increase our exports by 50 percent right now, I dare say that we could see at least $1.50, maybe a $2 increase, in the price of corn and soybeans (per bushel), which would be a tremendous plus for agriculture,” Miller said.

Increasing the amount of exports from Illinois to other countries is the goal of the state Department of Agriculture’s (IDOA) annual grain tour, which concluded its four-day run last week as 20 representatives from six countries returned home after having placed orders for delivery in the coming months.

Bobby Dowson, international marketing representative for the IDOA, said an estimate of total sales from this year’s tour wasn’t immediately available, given the tour wrapped up on Friday and some of the purchase totals were in foreign languages. Past tours have racked up sales of about $30 million each year.

While he didn’t have an estimate of total sales other than that it was in the “millions,” he said overall the tour went well and was a success. Raymond Poe, the state’s ag secretary, noted that in the 12 years the tour has been conducted, Illinois producers have sold about $230 million worth of goods, directly tied to the event.

“The export of Illinois grain is vital to the growth of our industry,” he said before the tour began. “Nearly half of the corn and soybeans produced in our state are exported, resulting in billions in direct sales annually. The Illinois grain tour gives the Department the opportunity to showcase world-class facilities located right here in Illinois to foreign investors.”

While exports from Illinois have steadily climbed in the past few years – for 2016, about $5.6 billion worth of state ag products were exported – Miller said he’s hopeful for more.

“I don't care where it goes. As long as it goes,” the farmer said. “A bushel sold overseas is one less bushel in a stockpile. The world is a growing population and we want to feed the world.”

The 20 buyers came from China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and the Philippines, Dowson said.

New stops on this year’s tour included time spent in the Metro East area near St. Louis, including the Melvin Place Lock and Dam in Alton, the first replacement structure on the upper Mississippi River navigation project, completed in 1994.

The group also toured the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, considered in the ethanol industry as one of the more “open” facilities for industry clients, academia, technology partners, trade groups and ethanol producers.

Tour members also saw regular hosts such as Archers Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur and GSI in Assumption – the largest manufacturer of steel farm bins, grain silos and storage grain bins.

Participants on the tour pay their own way, including airfare and a signup fee, but meals are donated by the Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. and the Illinois Soybean Assoc.