Chinese visit Washington wheat farm

Washington Ag Today November 16, 2011 A team of executives from a Chinese grain trading company recently visited the United States with stops that included a wheat farm in eastern Washington. The executives represented a company that is a purchasing agency for several Chinese flour mills that need imported, high quality wheat for blending with domestic grain.

The team was sponsored by U.S. Wheat Associates whose current chairman is farmer Randy Suess of Colfax.

Suess: “I was part of the tour that Matt Weimar from our Hong Kong office was taking these Chinese people around and they came by my farm. I had my combine parked on a hillside and they all climbed in with the engine running and swinging the unloading auger around. It was interesting visiting with them. It seemed like it was kind of a second generation people. It wasn‘t the actual head people in the organization but I think they are going to be the up and coming people so that is exciting to know that they are interested and being willing to come and see what we have to offer and understand our marketing system in the United States.”

The Chinese team also investigated opportunities to import U.S. wheat in containers, a delivery method preferred over bulk vessel shipments in many parts of China. Australia is currently meeting Chinese container load demand of as much as 18 million bushels a year.

Through the first quarter of the current marketing year China has imported11 million bushels of U.S. wheat and that includes 2.6 million bushels of soft white wheat.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.