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Issue 25 |
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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. |
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You'll need the Free Acrobat Reader to open the media kit pdf file. |
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Wheat World Activities Funded in Part by the Minnesota Wheat Checkoff U.S. Wheat industry well
represented at WTO Chris Shaffer, chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates, served as U.S. wheat producers' official liaison throughout the recent opening
ministerial meeting of the renewed World Trade Organization trade talks. Also representing wheat producers was Jack Eberspach-er, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, and Barbara Spangler, executive
director of the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee, which helps represent USW and the NAWG on trade matters. WETEC will also be attending the WTO and help represent the wheat organizations key trade priorities.
The WTO negotiations, expected to last about three years, are extremely important to agriculture and wheat specifically. More than half of the wheat produced in the U.S. goes into the export market. Between 1990 and
1998, U.S. wheat exports averaged 1.1 billion bushels annually. The facilitation of wheat exports through greater market access coupled with freer trade are crucial elements to successful WTO negotiations for the U.S.
wheat industry. WTO Talks on the Web USW positions on five issues important to U.S. wheat—economic barriers, export subsidies, state trading export monopolies, unilateral sanctions, and
biotechnology—are explained in USW's website: • • • • • U.S.-China agreement promising for U.S. wheat Bilateral talks completed successfully recently by the U.S. and China
spell good news over the long-term for U.S. wheat producers. The agreement includes an overall reduction in tariffs for ag products from an average of 31.5% to 14.5% by January 2004. The purchase of bulk commodities
will be liberalized and will permit private trade between parties for ag products. China has also agreed to eliminate export subsidies. Most importantly for the wheat industry, the longstanding ban on wheat from the
Pacific Northwest was lifted. Additionally, their accession to the WTO will place one of the fastest growing world economies into a rules-based world trading system, which will be key to the long term viability of the
Chinese market. There is still work to do before we can realize the benefits of this agreement: with China's admission to WTO, it will be up to Congress to grant permanent Normal Trade Relations to China. The wheat
industry is eager to work with Congress and the USTR to permanently open China's door to U.S. wheat exports. The Chinese market for U.S. wheat has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Throughout the early
1990s, China imported from 1 to 5.5 million metric tons of U.S. wheat each year (see chart on next page). More recently, Chinese imports from the U.S. have declined significantly, to 195,000 metric tons in the most
recent marketing year. China's wheat imports generally have also declined significantly, from over 12 million metric tons in 1995 to about one million in 1998. This is due in part to higher production levels in
the latter part of the 1990s compared to the early 90s. USW and the wheat industry achieved a breakthrough last April when China lifted a 20-year-old restriction on imports of U.S. wheat from areas where a wheat
fungus (Tilletia controversa Kuhn, or TCK) is known to occur. That agreement was announced during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to the U.S. when he and President Clinton discussed U.S. support for China's
entry into WTO. The WTO agreement between the U.S. and China did not take place until now.
China is the world's largest wheat producing and consuming nation. With the commitment now expressed by both countries, U.S. wheat will have meaningful access to one fifth of the world's consumers. Meet one of your customers Libya Buys U.S. Wheat Libya, which had been under U.S. unilateral economic sanctions for over a decade, recently made its first purchase of U.S. wheat since President Clinton eased those sanctions last spring. The purchase comes close on the heels of a visit to Libya by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the industry's export development organization. Libya purchased 16.2 thousand tons of U.S. durum. "We are obviously pleased with Libya's purchase," said Alan Tracy, USW president. "Our marketing team received a warm welcome when they visited there in late September, and it appears their efforts had some impact. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with wheat officials in Libya." U.S. wheat presence in Libya officially began with the arrival of USW staff in Tripoli in September. Paul Dickerson, vice president for overseas operations, and George Galasso, regional director for North Africa, conducted a fact-finding mission to learn about the Libyan market, milling operations and ports. They met with officials from NASCO, the government buying agency for wheat and flour, and other related ministries. The September visit was the outcome of earlier informal contacts with Libyan officials during a USW marketing seminar in Tunisia. "Although the U.S. still had sanctions against Libya, we were taking the long-range view when we met with them last spring," Dickerson said. "When the sanctions were lifted for agricultural products, we went to Libya as soon as we could to formally indicate our desire to sell them U.S. wheat." The USW visit was the first authorized trip to Libya by a commodity organization since sanctions were imposed. Annually, Libya purchases approximately 1.4 million tons of wheat equivalent, much of it in flour. Libyan officials have indicated that milling capacity in the country will soon be increased, which would allow for a greater percentage of wheat imports. Future Wheat Varieties May Be Tailor-Made for Foreign Markets In the future, U.S. hard red winter wheat varieties may be tailor-made to meet the quality needs of foreign markets, thanks to a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). The agreement allows the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the American Institute of Baking, and Kansas State University to act as liaisons between U.S. wheat breeders and foreign buyers. In the past, traditional wheat breeding has emphasized higher yields. But that's no longer enough to attract more business. Today's wheat producers need new, targeted wheat varieties to expand their markets overseas, according to Don E. Koeltzow, director of ARS' Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kansas. Researchers at the Kansas-based research facility will analyze the milling and baking qualities of hard red winter wheat grown in California, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. Then the researchers will match those quality traits with the needs of foreign buyers. Flour samples from U.S.-grown hard red winter wheat varieties will be provided to 12 foreign cooperators. The cooperators will provide feedback about how well these varieties meet the quality traits desired by buyers in their respective countries. The CRADA joins federal and state research expertise with industry's ability to market a product. The expected outcome: a higher demand for U.S. wheat in foreign countries. ARS operates four wheat quality laboratories located in Manhattan, Kan.; Wooster, Ohio; Fargo, N.D.; and Pullman, Wash. The labs were established to help breeders improve the quality of wheat varieties grown in their respective regions. ARS is the chief research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Wheat World is brought to you by the checkoff funded Minnesota |
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Sometimes in the high-pressured export world fraught with market fluctuations and trade disputes, we forget who our true customers are. This picture of a young
Japanese child and his spaghetti, taken by his mother, tells the end result of global markets from field to the overseas table far better that can any number of charts and graphs.