You're welcome, Joni, and thanks for the additional information. Good luck with the grants. What you have described, and what we observe, seems to be a system out of balance in several respects. The fact that for example proso can be grown but can't get dehulled, and then that the end consumer demand might not be there are problematic. The latter is key, but growing demand has many aspects, even when focusing on one millet. A good starting place seems to be another area you're also working on - namely to facilitate people trying millets in institutional food settings. Obviously the quality and flavors of such offerings would be key to any success. Am thinking that food procurement on these levels (as much as I understand them) could also build a level of demand on top of which to develop consumer demand. On consumer demand, a quick aside: What I see as a consumer in mid-Michigan regarding proso isn't very encouraging. Two stores in East Lansing that used to have proso millet in bulk (bins labeled "Millet," as is typical) don't anymore. One of those that had puffed millet breakfast cereal doesn't anymore. Another store, a large independent grocery, still has both of those, but less shelf space overall to millet (i.e., proso in this context). On the other hand, the latter stocks a line of "millet [i.e., proso] & flax" chips by Sami's Bakery (a Florida company) that they say moves quite well. So this is a tiny anecdotal sample in one location, but mostly it doesn't seem to be moving in the direction of more interest in millets.Ihaven't tracked sorghum closely, but don't notice any major changes. Teff has gone up in price, possibly reflecting global supply or else demand, but shelf space for it is limited (packaged teff in the above stores is from Bob's Red Mill, and sourced in the US). I wonder if part of the issue with demand for millets is that people aren't so sure what they'd do with them. A common set of questions when you mention millets is how to cook them, and if you have any recipes. A millet chip on the other hand is not hard to figure out, and if it tastes good, folks will come back to it (noting here also Yolélé's venture into the same space with fonio). So maybe strategies for consumer packaged goods with millets should invest more in ready-to-eat snacks at this stage in the game? Another dimension is mixes - which you and Snacktivist are of course already doing, and which one also sees increasingly in various products (like breads - millets having moved from the sprinkle on the crusts into the doughs). Is expansion possible here? IOW, how might various millets improve or add attractive nutritional or taste dimensions to additional familiar processed foods (from noodles to tortillas etc.)? It all comes back to a systems perspective - at least that's how it seems to someone with my background. Regarding the expensive market reports, too bad that you weren"t able to access them. I still wonder if a focused and funded academic research effort might come up with as good general data for your purposes, plus more relevant focused research and analysis. Of course, all that would take time you don't have. But it would be good to have such information freely accessible for the benefit of people and small organizations & companies working with millets. Sorry to ramble - and hope some of this is of use. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA PS- Regarding millets in stores, it's a different story with millets from India and China in groceries specializing in each. This is not a big city with large "ethnic" food stores, but there's some interesting stories here nonetheless. On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 2:44 PM Joni Kindwall-Moore < joni@snacktivistfoods.com> wrote:

Thanks, Don, We are in the process of applying for a series of USDA grants to help grow the market via investments in processing, innovating new products and investing in marketing. I was able to find some reports but they were very expensive to obtain and we don't have that kind of capital. There is a lot of work in agronomy and in genetics but very little it seems filters through to initiatives that would actually grow the demand for human-grade millets (sorghum included). Thanks to everyone who is contributing!

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 7:36 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:

...

Thanks Joni for the question about reports with economic data about the millets industry, and David, for the USDA and ARS GRIN links. On the USDA links, noting not only "proso millet" (the only "millet" found in text searches) and also "sorghum" (no surprise at all). However I don't find "teff," even tho it is grown for grains for the food market - perhaps it is too small a crop for their purposes?

Joni, I'd like to know more about the goal of your effort, and also the particular "Market Data Forecast" (MDF) service whose report (a sample?) you link to. I am not familiar with MDF or who's behind it (altho will come back to that below). From the breadth of their listed work - including but not limited to a range of agricultural crops - it seems like MDF must have a system for accessing various levels of published research and extracting information relevant to whatever regional report they are producing. Such can be very useful for a start, but IMO would be most useful in combination with topic-specific research that accesses data and contexts that wouldn't necessarily be compiled or published by anyone else (e.g., on small importers and artisanal grain operations, which may not register in involve small operations as regards millets). Seems like you might be thinking in those terms?

In the outline in the MDF document you linked to, I'm looking at segmentation by type (5.1) and am very interested in how this (and the content) might be customized. It lists the four main millets globally (i.e., the four most cultivated grains surnamed "millet") - pearl, finger, proso, and foxtail - followed by "others.". However, of these four in North America, only proso is produced for food-grade grains commercially, and finger millet apparently isn't grown in significant quantities for any purpose (outside of some research). Pearl millet is a major grain crop in parts of Africa and South Asia, but limited mainly to forage in the US. All four of these - along with several other millets - are imported for human consumption in small quantities for retail sale - as grain and in processed food products.

Working off of the realities in this part of the world, plus considering the group of grains highlighted in the International Year of Millets, might a different outline for market segmentation serve better? For example, start with: sorghum (which MDF may treat separately?); proso; teff (which has a small but interesting production in the US for food and fodder); followed as above by "others." The latter tier could be millets that are grown here for fodder, cover crops, or other purposes, and which as mentioned above, are also imported as food.

The thing with millets as I understand it - and I'm really learning as I'm going - is that production, consumption, and even status is really particular by location, more so than the particularities one sees with the main cereal crops, all their varieties notwithstanding. In other words, the configuration of species grown and for what, can be entirely different by region. Most are not known in all regions, and a few may be considered weeds (for example, kodo millet, a crop in South Asia, is considered a "noxious weed" in parts of the US, for an extreme case).

All of which is to say that it's a bit complicated, so a locally / regionally tailored outline would be the way to start. However, I'm not sure how easy it would be to do economic forecasts on the smaller markets of millets imports and artisanal grains.

Regarding MDF, it specializes in market research, business intelligence, and reports (no surprise). It's based in Hyderabad, and is listed as having 11-50 employees/2 or 87 employees./3 No info on its methods. Not sure if its location in India might give it special insights into the millets market there (largest in the world, from what I understand), and exports to the US, Canada, and Mexico.

All this circles around the issues you're asking about, but hopefully some of it is useful. Again, it would be interesting if you can share more info on this effort.

All the best, Don

DO, EL, MI, US NAMA

Notes: 1. https://www.marketdataforecast.com 2. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/market-data-forecast-inc 3. https://www.linkedin.com/company/market-data-forecast/

On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 12:25 PM Brenner, David (CTR) - REE-ARS via Collab <collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:

...

The USDA statistics are good for proso millet, and they are updated regularly.

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. 2020a. Crop Values 2019 Summary (February 2020) https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/k35694332/9w032m...

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. 2020b. Crop Production 2019 Summary (January 2020) https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/k3569432s/sj139j...

These about proso are compiled from various sources including the above.

https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/cgc_reports/2020-%20Proso%20Millet%20Crop%20Vu...

https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/cgc_reports/2020-%20Proso%20Millet%20Quad%20Ch... ------------------------------ *From:* Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Joni Kindwall-Moore <joni@snacktivistfoods.com> *Sent:* Monday, July 17, 2023 10:45 AM *To:* collab@lists.millets2023.space <collab@lists.millets2023.space> *Subject:* [External Email][Collab] Millets Market Projections

[External Email] If this message comes from an *unexpected sender* or references a *vague/unexpected topic;* Use caution before clicking links or opening attachments. Please send any concerns or suspicious messages to: Spam.Abuse@usda.gov Hello Millets Community, we are compiling some economic data about the millet industry and looking for formal reports that can help us quantify economic value and compound annual growth rate (CAGR). I am specifically looking to site this article ( https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:67aa41c7-0300-465c-bb84-81e78853...), have any of you in the industry compiled this data yet or have access to these market reports? Thanks, Joni

*Joni Kindwall-Moore BSN-RN, BA* Founder, CEO, Innovator, Mother, Nurse, Activist

*P: 406-334-1608* *www.snacktivistfoods.com <http://www.snacktivistfoods.com/>* *Scan this QR code to experience the Snacktivist Nation! *

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