AMERICAN farmers are loading containers with corn, soy beans and distillers dried grain for Asia at rates 44 per cent higher in September year on year and 110 per cent above the three-year average, according to a recent report from US Department of Agriculture, Reuters reports.

During 2005, five per cent of grain exports to Asia and four per cent of all grain exports went in containers, up from three per cent and two per cent respectively, according to US Government data.

A sheet of cardboard and wooden planks is all that is needed to turn an empty FEU into a box for grain, said Jeff Grzya, project manager at the Elburn Co-operative in Maple Park, Illinois, 60 miles west of Chicago.

"It gets easier the more containers we load. we've had up to 30 containers a day in the past few weeks, so I've had no shortage of practice," Mr Grzya said, as he built a wooden bulkhead and poured 23 tons of soybeans into the FEU. Containers leave the Elburn Co-op by truck and train, taking advantage of the empties accumulating or returning to Asia without cargo.

"But when [bulk] rates go down, container shipments tail off significantly," countered Bo DeLong, head of the grain division at Clinton, Wisconsin-based grain transport company DeLong Co. "This market will remain volatile. Bulk shipping is more convenient and involves less paperwork."

But Bob Zelenka, the Minnesota Grain & Feed Association's executive director, said: "Containers enable farmers to contract with the end user and eliminate the middleman. They can even load containers on farms and save money."