Activities Funded in Part by the Minnesota Wheat Checkoff

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Prairie Grains is the official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat, Inc., and the Minnesota Barley Growers Association.

In a recent letter to USDA Secretary Dan Glickman, USW said that the growth of U.S. wheat exports has been limited in recent years because systematic cleaned wheat is not widely available from the U.S. export system, while Canada and Australia have generally shipped grain with very low dockage/foreign material content.

"Although wheat cleanliness is only one of a number of quality issues, Canada and Australia have a great advantage in many markets because of it, and we would like to turn that situation around," USW President Alan Tracy said.

Grain cleanliness key purchase consideration
Tracy cited Latin America as an example of a lost market due in part to competing against government-backed cleaning efforts. In 1985, Latin America imported approximately six million metric tons (MMT) of wheat from all sources, of which 70% was U.S. origin. This compares to current import levels of 15 MMT, of which only 15% is of U.S. origin. Meanwhile, Canadian imports in the region have grown from about 1.5 MMT in the mid-1980s to six MMT today.

"Although there are a variety of reasons behind this increase, the fact that the Canadians are supplying a cleaner product is certainly one of the reasons." Tracy said.

The letter also notes the many comments from export customers around the world regarding the cleanliness of U.S. wheat and diminished market opportunities because of it.

"USW has 75 people throughout its 15 overseas offices located in leading wheat buying regions around the world," USW Chairman Jerry Kress said. "These people have constant contact with grain customers who regularly tell them that grain cleanliness is an important purchasing consideration."

USW Launches Overseas Varietal Analysis Program
USW recently launched a program to obtain quality analysis of selected U.S. wheat varieties from key overseas users and make findings available to wheat breeders in the U.S. and others. Hard red spring and soft white wheat varieties are currently being analyzed in various countries throughout the world. Hard red winter and soft red winter varieties will be added to the program this year, with other U.S. wheat classes to be added in succeeding years. Following are notes from several overseas offices about the project.

USW China/Hong Kong is cooperating with a Hong Kong-based group testing 16 flour samples milled from U.S. spring and white wheats. Laboratory testing of the samples compares them with "control" flours taken from standard mill operations. The tests look at the ability of the U.S. varieties to meet processing requirements for Chinese foodstuffs. Testing is expected to be completed in mid-April with results returned to the U.S. by early May. In addition to providing feedback to U.S. breeders, another project goal is to provide users of U.S. wheat a view of current and future varieties.

USW/Korea distributed hard red spring, soft white and white club varietal samples, which will be analyzed for protein, ash, moisture contents and rheological properties. The samples will be evaluated for dough handling performance, end product quality characteristics and overall acceptability compared to the cooperator’s control flour samples.
In addition, USW/Santiago distributed flour samples in Peru and Chile, and USW/Taipei distributed samples for testing in Taiwan.

USW/Cape Town Hosts Monetization Conference
The first Conference on Monetization in Subsaharan Africa was recently hosted by USW/Cape Town. The purpose of the conference was to address issues related to the increasing number of projects in the region involving monetization. USW’s interest in these programs is to ensure that the classes of wheat provided through these projects is best suited to end user needs and to try to see that commercial shipments are not disrupted.

Monetization programs are most common in developing countries and involve converting goods to local currency, which is then utilized for a variety of projects, including those that improve and/or develop community services.

WHEAT WORLD is brought to you by the checkoff funded Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council.