U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Bakery Technologist David Oh is credited with helping a group of South Korean bakers make an important connection earlier this year. The effort serves as a perfect example of how USW market development activities – short courses, technical workshops, and trade teams – promoted U.S. wheat in overseas markets in 2024.
Over the past 12 months, USW sponsored a dozen short courses hosted by the Wheat Marketing Center (WMC), the Northern Crops Institute (NCI) and the IGP Institute (IGP). USW also hosted eight trade teams made up of international wheat buyers on visits to the U.S. and participated in USDA agricultural trade missions around the world.
Each activity had a common goal: to connect U.S. wheat to customers who value quality and reliability.
Farmers Are Key
Back in April, Oh led a team of professionals through a Bakery Product Development Course at the WMC in Portland. The seminar focused on a handful of products that allowed the Korean team to see how U.S. wheat quality helps bakers create better end products. A visit to the Thomas Dierickx farm to meet U.S. wheat farmers and learn about their production practices was a significant event to showcase the reliability of the U.S. wheat crop.
“All the technical baking work we did in the lab at the Wheat Marketing Center was very important and very educational,” Oh said. “But introducing the bakers to the farmers and showing them how U.S. wheat is grown and the care the farmers take to produce the crop had a big impact on the team.”
USDA Funding is Vital
The Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) program anchor USW’s activities each year. The Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP) is winding down. But the new FAS Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) is now allowing USW to maintain a higher level of trade and technical service for customers.
“These kinds of activities really help us put a spotlight on the quality and value of U.S. wheat, and serve as the bread and butter of what we do, so to speak,” said USW Chairman Clark Hamilton. Clark, an Idaho wheat farmer, was involved in several 2024 activities. He was part of USDA’s first-ever U.S. agribusiness trade mission to Luanda, the capital of Angola. There, he teamed with Chad Weigand, USW’s Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, to meet with millers and bakers and analyze consumer trends.
“Wherever I’ve been in the world meeting with millers and bakers, one thing has been clear: The U.S. Wheat Associates staff does a tremendous job of building and maintaining relationships within the global markets, and that is very important,” said Hamilton. “We are in a very competitive business in a very competitive world, so having those relationships is incredibly valuable.”
A small sampling of the many USW activities in 2024
South America
Educational meetings, firsthand workshops and on-site production support were part of USW’s successful effort to convince one of Colombia’s largest cake, cookie, and cracker manufacturers to make its very first purchase of U.S. wheat. The company makes an iconic rectangular, chocolate-covered cake snack, but has only ever used flour additives and Canadian spring wheat flour to make that snack as well as cookies, crackers, and other products for more than 40 years. In February 2024, a company executive wrote USW to say: “The seminars … have given us tools to strengthen our negotiation and supply strategies,” the executive wrote. “During 2023, we began the approvals and purchases … a historic milestone for [us] and U.S. wheat. The commercial relationship that we want to continue strengthening as strategic partners in the following years.”
Tawain
USW Taipei worked with Chia Fha Flour Mill to hold a U.S. wheat flour and bakery products briefing session October 7. An estimated 30 bakers, distributors, ingredient suppliers, and baking instructors took part. At the event, USW offered a broad look at positive U.S. wheat characteristics. Chi Fha’s R&D head then introduced two new flour products made with 100% U.S. wheat that are more suitable for pan bread and hearth bread with higher moisture and longer shelf life.
Mexico and Latin America
In August, USW/Mexico City Assistant Regional Director Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann traveled to Panama City, Panama, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to a procurement seminar in each location. The seminars targeted a cross-section of mill staff from each of the participating mills. Included were representatives from production, purchasing, quality control and executive teams. Bryant-Erdmann shared USW’s “Getting the Wheat You Want” presentation and did a review of class and quality specification recommendations. Mexico remains U.S. wheat’s top importer.
Click here to see more...