Phillippines Media Tour

I'm Susan Allen with Washington Ag Today , media representatives from the Phillippines that included staff from some of their largest newspapers are on a tour with US Wheat and made a stop over in our state WE caught up with Joe Sowers regional vice president of U.S. Wheat who is based in the Philippines' and asked him about the importance of that export market.

Sowers: The Phillippines now is the number one market in the world for soft white wheat, it's only the second time in history but I believe in the future we will continue to be one of the top markets or even the op market because of the demographic changes we are seeing.

What have been some of the highlights of the trip?

Sowers: Really one of the greatest part of trip is that they get to meet the producers themselves and the areas they are growing it in. When you come to beautiful Washington and Idaho and see how clean it is, that the water is unpolluted areas of wide open spaces I feel like it gives them the sense that they are in a place that you would want your food produces. So we will do that for a couple days then we will head out to DC to meet with government officials to discuss issues there about trade policy and other trends that are important to the Philippines' Islands.

The group is in the United States for 10 days and Sowers also cited the Federal Grain Inspection Service in Portland, which guarantees quality to the buyers but also food safety as another one of their most important stops.