Briefing Buyers about Your Wheat

USW Seminars report on ’03 U.S. Quality, Supply

Each fall after harvest, U.S. Wheat Associates annually presents wheat crop quality information to buyers, millers and other industry professionals around the world in crop quality seminars. It’s a long and involved project, from organizing sample testing of the U.S. crop, to producing reports in several languages, to scheduling dozens of seminars globally, to bringing in U.S. wheat experts to present information at the seminars.

The meetings occur in November and December, for the most part, and are one of the more important projects funded annually through the wheat checkoff.  The crop quality seminars provide buyers and millers around the world the information they need to contract for the type and quality of U.S. wheat that best meets their individual requirements. The seminars also allow discussion amongst buyers and sellers about U.S. wheat issues and trends.

Leland “Judge” Barth, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission, was one of the seminar presenters at this year’s crop quality seminars.  Other presenters included John Oades, director, USW west coast office; Brian Sorenson, technical director, Northern Crop Institute, Fargo; and Dave Sheldon, director, Wheat Marketing Center, Portland.

“There’s still resistance to biotech wheat, however, there does seem to be a willingness to at least discuss it.  They’re asking questions, such as where the registration process is at, and what producers are thinking about it,” says Barth.

Leland “Judge” Barth, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission, presented information about the quality of the 2003 U.S. spring wheat crop, in wheat-checkoff funded crop quality seminars for overseas wheat buyers.

Overseas wheat users and buyers in Asian markets continue to be interested in white wheat from the U.S. Currently, Asian wheat users import most of their white wheat from Australia – and would like to see more white wheat produced and marketed from the U.S. to make the Australian white wheat price more competitive.  Barth says wheat users are open to dual-purpose white wheat varieties, but prefer a white wheat variety specific to noodle production, and specific to breadmaking.

Increasing ocean freight rates are a concern for wheat exporters.  Barth says ocean freight rates are two to three times that of a year ago, giving Australia – with its northern coast only 300 miles from the islands of Southeast Asia – an export advantage. An increase in bulk fuel costs, coupled with increased shipping volume and static vessel capacity, are mainly to blame. The increase in ocean freight demand in Pacific Rim markets has been fueled by massive shipments of commodities (grain, iron ore, and others) to China, and an increase in coal shipments to Japan.

Following are other notes and highlights from USW seminars in various parts of the world, from summaries provided through USW regional offices.

Japan Appreciative of Purchase Presentation
In Japan, presentations were held for flour millers and grain traders, with good attendance, about 100 participants in each session. A special seminar on “Purchase Quality Specification” was also conducted by Oades. The USW/Tokyo office reports that Oades’ presentation “was a great success. All the young grain traders and government officials appreciated the program,” and indicated that it deepened their knowledge about the U.S. inspection system. A Japanese official thanked the USW team repeatedly for this seminar and asked that it be repeated in the future.

Koreans Interested in HRS, Concerned about Biotech
In Korea, 85 participants from milling, baking, confectionery, noodles, and other wheat food industries as well as universities attended the seminar. Topics included U.S./world wheat supply and demand, and production and quality factors for various classes of U.S. wheat. The participants particularly showed interest in the protein, gluten quantity and quality of hard red spring wheat. In addition, there was a special “Biotechnology Update.” Dr. Won Bang Koh, USW country director in Seoul, reports that the Koreans “expressed concern that GM wheat will be produced sometime in the near future, and wondered how they should cope with GM wheat.”

Filipinos Urged to Spec Wheat They Want
In the Philippines, 96 participants from the milling industry and wheat trade attended the seminar. David Miller, agriculture counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Manila, gave the opening remarks. USW strongly encouraged the participants to use the information provided in the seminar to alter their wheat contract specifications in a way to help them improve the quality and value of wheat purchased from the U.S., consistent with the quality characteristics of the new crop.

Taiwanese Hear About Functional Wheat Specs
In Taiwan, 50 people – including flour mill managers and technicians representing all 28 mills, and Taiwan Flour Mills Association officials – attended the whole day seminar. Presentations and discussions included world wheat supply and demand (Oades); wheat quality (Sheldon, Sorenson); and the hard red spring wheat quality improvement program and biotechnology updates (Barth). In addition, special subjects including functional wheat quality specifications and existing wheat purchasing specifications were discussed.

Middle East, Africa seminars
USW/Cairo organized seminars in Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Kenya, and expect about 50 participants at each of those meetings. The Cairo event was expecting attendance by over 100 wheat industry key officials from Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Cyprus and Sudan.  USW provided English and Arabic copies of this year’s U.S. crop quality report. A Turkish report was also prepared for Turkish flour millers and grain traders.

USW/Casablanca organized the crop quality seminars in Oran, Algiers, Casablanca and Marrakesh. While Casablanca and Algiers are traditional locations, Oran and Marrakesh were added to meet a request by the millers to enable wider participation. This year, the program was tweaked a bit in an effort to promote blending and, at the same time, better showcase how
U.S. classes relate to local needs. The seminars were broken into two sessions: one for millers with more of a technical approach and another for importers, focusing more on supply and demand. Over 70 participants registered for each seminar in Algiers and Casablanca.

European Seminars Emphasize HRS Quality
USW/Europe conducted crop quality seminars in 11 cities, in 9 countries, over 13 business days. Sessions were held in England, Poland, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Attendance by local millers, processors, traders and importers totaled 400 participants. Among the presenters was Bert D’Appolonia, professor emeritus at North Dakota State University, who discussed hard red spring and durum wheat quality. Of particular emphasis this year in the European seminars was the uniformly good quality of the U.S. hard red spring wheat crop.