Sorghum: Characteristics
How grain colour and tannin decide what sorghum becomes
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 64.3 Mt (FAOSTAT 2024); 63.1 Mt in 2025/26 and 60.2 Mt forecast for 2026/27 | Grown in hot, dry regions: the US Plains, the Sahel, Sudan, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. | FAOSTAT 2024; USDA PSD |
| Inventory and stock levels | world ending stocks 3.4 Mt forecast for 2026/27, 5.8% of use, about 21 days | Stocks are very thin. The US held about 0.9 Mt at end-2025/26. In Africa households and food reserve agencies hold most stocks. India has no separate buffer norm; USDA puts India's stocks at about 0.3 Mt. | USDA PSD; WASDE Oct 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | There is no tracked processing bottleneck. US sorghum competes with maize for ethanol plant and feed mill capacity, and Chinese baijiu distillers buy imports. | USDA; content of this tile |
| Geographic and producer concentration | top country US 13.6%, top-3 (US, Nigeria, India) 32.1%, HHI 656 (2024); exports: US 56.7%, top-3 90.6% of value; China 89% of import value | Farming is dispersed, but trade is a near duopoly in both directions: US and Australia sell, China buys. Cargill, ADM, Bunge, COFCO and LDC handle most US export flows. | FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | short-run moderate: annual crop, but competes with maize and cotton for land | US farmers plant sorghum where it is too dry for maize, so acreage swings with Chinese demand and maize prices. Smallholder African supply depends on rainfall more than price. | USDA; FAOSTAT yields |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no capacity projects tracked | Output is forecast to fall from 63.1 Mt to 60.2 Mt in 2026/27. India's 2026-27 MSP for hybrid jowar rose to Rs 4,023/quintal from Rs 3,699, part of a push for millets. | USDA PSD; Government of India MSP |
| Logistics and export flows | US exported about 5.2 Mt in 2025/26, roughly 8% of world output | Main route: Kansas and Texas by rail to Gulf ports, then Panamax ships to China. Australia ships from Queensland. Most African and Indian sorghum is eaten where it is grown. Exposure to China's tariff policy is the main chokepoint. | USDA WASDE Oct 2026; UN Comtrade 2024 |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Sorghum is graded like maize, on test weight, damage and foreign material. Colour and tannin content decide end use: white, low-tannin grain for food and baijiu, while high-tannin brown grain resists birds but lowers feed digestibility. Starch content matters for ethanol yield. Sorghum is gluten-free, which supports food niches.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test weight | US No. 2 sorghum at least 57.0 lb/bu (about 73 kg/hl) | Basis grade for US export contracts | USDA FGIS US Standards for Sorghum (indicative) |
| Broken kernels and foreign material | US No. 2 at most about 6.0% | Higher levels reduce feed and milling value | USDA FGIS (indicative) |
| Moisture | about 13-14% for safe storage | Wet grain moulds and can develop mycotoxins | trade practice (indicative) |
| Tannin content | low-tannin (white/red) vs high-tannin (brown) types | Tannins cut protein digestibility in feed; baijiu makers prefer some tannin | US Grains Council (indicative) |
| Protein and starch | protein about 9-12%; starch about 70% | Starch sets ethanol and feed energy value | US Grains Council (indicative) |