USA – Following the introduction of a new grain inspection legislation that seeks to enhance certainty and customer service, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) said it ratifies the idea.

The legislation reinforced congressional intent regarding the official grain inspection exceptions process for domestic facilities within the grain, feed and processing industry.

It provides domestic grain-handling facilities with the incentive to restore official inspection service agreements they previously had with USDA-approved official grain inspection providers.

This follows the reauthorization of the U.S. Grain Standards Act that exempted domestic shipments from inspection and weighing.

The US Grain Standards Act (USGSA) required that exported grains and oilseeds be officially inspected and weighed in order to ensure that high-quality grains are marketed.

After realignment of agencies along more functional lines based on revised regulations under the Agriculture Reauthorization Act of 2015, it was realized that the revision was used by Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) to allow incumbent providers designated by the agency to perform official inspections within USDA-established geographic territories.

As a result, FGIS revoked dozens of existing service agreements, disrupting long-standing, well-functining agreements to provide official inspections.

The problem affected facilities that utilized official grain inspection services throughout the domestic agricultural supply chain.

The legislation remedies the problem by reinforcing congressional intent by allowing facilities to restore prior non-use service agreements terminated by FGIS that previously were in place with official inspection providers.

“U.S. competitiveness in domestic and global markets benefits when FGIS and its designated service providers perform market-responsive official inspection and weighing of bulk grains and oilseeds in a reliable and uninterrupted manner,” said Randy Gordon, president and chief executive officer of the NGFA.

He added that the legislation would restore cost-effective and efficient official grain inspection relationships that previously existed within the domestic trade and which had been working well.