Promoting U.S. Wheat in Asia

A behind-the-scenes look from the first-hand perspective of an American wheat farmer

By Brian O’Toole
O’Toole is a Crystal, N.D. farmer, and serves on the board of the North Dakota Wheat Commission.

I recently took part in a trade mission in Asia to help familiarize myself with the overseas operations of U.S. Wheat Associates, and to better answer the never ending question “what is my checkoff doing for me?”

Upon completion of this mission, I can say the value our wheat farmers are getting from their checkoff dollars overseas is truly underestimated.

First Stop, USW Portland
‘A Grain grading system second to none’

The mission kicked off with a stop in Portland, where I met up with Jay Takemura, a Washington wheat commissioner, and Ian Flagg, assistant director to USW’s West Coast office. Jay is a soft white and club wheat producer from Washington. Ian’s Minnesota background and N.D. college education made me feel quite at home in our conversations. I found this to be a great opportunity for background information. I was impressed by Ian’s recall and ability to find facts and figures regarding sales in Asia.

Key for me was a presentation from Walter Rust, of the Federal Grain Inspection Service. Walter cleared up a long time myth regarding the contamination of our overseas vessels with “weed seeds, water, stones, etc.” at export elevators. This false story has been repeated in my area for years and I was confronted with it again when I returned home.

With the new information I acquired in Portland, I can now put a stop to this ‘urban legend’ and tell other growers with confidence that the U.S. has the finest quality of wheat shipped, it has a grading system in place that is second to no other country, and our 3rd party check system by Federal Grain is the envy of all our competing countries. This was not only made clear to me in Walter’s presentation, but also verified in the six countries of Asia we visited.

Seoul, Korea
Issues include wheat desiccation, biotech wheat

The first stop in Asia was in Seoul. We were met by Dr. Won Bang Koh, our U.S. Wheat Korea Director.  Dr. Koh provided us with an overview of the present wheat market situation in Korea.

We learned that Korea would not be able to purchase wheat from Australia this year, and Dr. Koh felt it would be a good opportunity for the U.S. to get some of its market share back. However, it was stated that Korea would best be in the market for hard white wheat, a class that the U.S. has little export quantities available. Dr. Koh would like to see U.S. wheat breeders visit Korea and attend a baking school to better familiarize them with Korea’s noodle flour needs.

GMO wheat was discussed and made clear to us that Korea would not allow GMO wheat in their country, but when I asked if GMO hard white wheat could be produced to agronomically work for the American farmers and satisfy the needs of the Korean noodle industry, this being a win-win for both parties, their answer towards GMO wheat was turned into a maybe.

We toured the Daesun Flour Mill, a mill dwarfed by its surrounding high rise condominiums set in a very densely populated part of Seoul. We also toured the Korea Baking School. Mr. Hong was the director of the school and was very appreciative of all the help U.S. Wheat has given this school. He also was quick to state that the quality of U.S. wheat could be seen in both biscuits and noodles.

Bangkok, Thailand
Dilemma of high wheat prices, poverty-stricken consumers

In Bangkok we were introduced to the key link of how U.S. wheat is sold in Asia, Mr. Roy Chung. Roy brought us to the UFM Baking & Cooking Center. This tour by Roy filled in all the pieces for me. I now know how Asian cuisine is satisfied by U.S. wheat. Without someone to teach the science involved in baking Asian breads, noodles, and biscuits with different blends of U.S. flour, we would not have a market to supply. Mr. Chung is a very dedicated instructor allowing only 40 days at home the past year and maximizing his time on the road with high demands from his students. Plus the never ending pitch for U.S. wheat always accompanies his teachings.

We spent time in Bangkok observing the USW crop quality team members conducting their meeting.  I was pleased to see the large turnout at this meeting, where participants from many different countries attended. Presentations were well conducted. One dilemma that came up which left an impression with me: When a household in Thailand with a gross annual income of around $900 U.S., uses half of its income to feed their family, what happens when the cost of food skyrockets?  It was made quite clear during this crop quality seminar that world wheat stocks were down, world consumption was up, and world production was down. This makes a higher price for wheat inevitable. This is good for me, the farmer, but a bad situation for the low-income customer. I am looking forward to returning a profit to the farm, but would also like to be able to feed the people most in need – sounds like we could use some new export programs.

Brian Sorenson of the Northern Crops Institute in Fargo explained our pesticide licensing program in the U.S., and how we are constantly monitored on our pesticide use. Brian also gave a quality report on our hard red spring wheat.

 John Oades of USW Portland explained the large swing from wheat to corn and soybeans, and introduced the conclusion that this move was not only because of the ethanol and biofuel benefits of these crops, but that there was added value to the farmer from raising a GMO crop.  This was a subtle introduction to our GMO crops and I felt it was done well.

Jakarta, Indonesia
The largest flour mill in the world

 We met with representatives from the flour milling industry.  They seemed quite interested in this year’s crop.  With their close proximity to Australia, a sale from the U.S. seems challenging, but with the short crop reports in Australia, this provoked a lot of questions on quality and quantity of our wheat.  I hope with the help of U.S. Wheat, our market share in this country increases.

We toured the Arnott Biscuit Factory, which was very clean and well maintained, although the amount of people employed was unbelievable and the work environment quite hot and very repetitious.  Very little automation was used because people are available.  Mark Samson of the USW Singapore office took the time to explain Mr. Chung’s experimentation with the blends of U.S. soft white at 70% and U.S. Dark Northern Spring at 30%, to duplicate flour ground from Australian wheat.  Mark added that U.S. soft white is quite a value at today’s market, and that conversation sparked a 10 thousand ton sale.  It was great to see U.S. Wheat Associates look for any opportunity available to sell U.S. wheat.

In Jakarta we toured Bogasari Flour Mill, an unbelievable 80-acre facility.  Our tour was conducted from golf carts to cover the massive ground this facility utilizes. With a storage capacity of 404,000 tons of wheat and 10,750 tons of flour per day, this is the largest mill in the world. For perspective, the N.D. Mill in Grand Forks is the largest single mill in the U.S., with a capacity of 2,200 tons of flour per day.  The Bogasari Mill rotates its flour inventory every 3 days.  In our extensive tour of both the outside grounds and inside testing mills and labs, I never saw a kernel of wheat out of place or a pile of flour lying around.  When you think of the volume of this facility, that itself was quite remarkable.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Opportunities in frozen dough and easy to prepare style noodles

Our arrival to Ho Chi Minh City, formally Saigon, was met with a smaller population compared to the other large cities in Asia we visited. ‘Only’ around 5.5 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City, and they all seem to be on motorcycles with one common driving rule, fill in the space in front of you. You can imagine that all of this is quite different for a farmer from a state with about 650,000 people.

We toured the Interflour Mill in Vung Tau. This 500 ton mill was started in 2002, but has plans to double its milling capacity and storage facility next year. It was impressive for me to see this very modern facility.  Interflour Mill not only had a state-of-the-art milling software program, but also a high tech docking program for docking vessels and cruise ships.

The Duc Phac Bakery which we toured commented on the quality of flour produced from U.S. wheat, and the USW staff took that opportunity to ask them to demand U.S. flour when they purchase flour from the Interflour Mill.  Again, U.S. Wheat Associates was stepping up to the plate for U.S. wheat.  With Ho Chi Minh City’s rapid growth and economic development, I see this a great opportunity to develop a strong market for U.S. wheat, with its frozen dough and easy to prepare style noodles.

Guangzhou, China
‘Frozen bread best made with some U.S. DNS wheat’

We met up with Matt Weimar in Hong Kong and headed to China, having a good opportunity to see some farmland by train. Any area that was not a rock or city was farmed. 

In China we toured the Sino-American Baking School with Philip Zhou, the principal and Sisi Xu, an administrator, who was in North Dakota at our NCI this past year.   Roy Chung was conducting a class on frozen bread for the instructors of the school, and they all agreed frozen bread was best made with some U.S. DNS wheat. Thanks Roy! 

The SABS has trained over 8,000 bakers since it started in 1984, and now has plans to rebuild a larger school.  U.S. Wheat has sponsored 6 teachers to be trained in the U.S., and they are all still teaching at this school. This school also has a short course used to educate industry bakers that is well attended and a great promotion for U.S. wheat.

Some take-home points  from this educational trade mission:

• U.S. Wheat Associates continues to maintain good relations overseas, and provides competent personnel overseas to assist the sale.   

• USW supports the science it takes to develop the products, and funds the education needed to sell our wheat.

• USW educates commissioners like myself to help educate our area farmers about the effort to build market share for American-grown wheat overseas.

From left are four teachers at the Sino-American Baking School in China; Roy Chung, bakery consultant with U.S. Wheat Associates-Singapore; Brian O’Toole, Crystal, ND, North Dakota Wheat Commissioner; Ian Flag, assistant director USW Portland; Jay Takemura, Washington Wheat Commissioner; and Philip Zhou, principal of the SAB School.  “In my opinion, U.S. wheat cannot be sold into Asia without the science used to teach Asians of the proper flour blends used to make their known products, and to teach them new products, such as frozen dough, or pizza dough,” O’Toole observes.  “Our wheat qualities are different to local bakers, and their cuisine is different to our bakers.  It takes a middle man like Roy Chung to help we as American wheat sellers and they the Asian buyers speak the same dough and baking language. Roy travels throughout Asia educating both teachers and students of the quality benefits U.S. wheat has to offer.  These students and teachers return to their work places and classes to promote, support, and use U.S. wheat. USW is a big contributor to the schools Roy teaches at. Roy is constantly on the road with only 40 days spent at home last year. He is, in my mind, a big link to the sale of U.S. wheat.”