01/14/09 Russian wheat

World leaders in wheat exports changing. I'm David Sparks, back with more in a sec. "Demand and the world consumption of wheat is still growing." That's Blaine Jacobson, Executive Director of the Idaho Wheat Commission and it's a good thing that the world hunger for wheat is growing because things appear to be changing on the wheat landscape. In most years, the United States is the world's leading wheat exporter. But that apparently won't be the case this year according to Jim Peterson at the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Peterson says the countries of the former Soviet Union& sometimes called the black sea region& have become a major competitor. "If you look at the latest export projections by USDA, as a group the former Soviet Union is projected at 28.6 million metric tons, the U.S. 27.2. So collectively they would be the largest wheat exporter in the world, if that happens." Of course we can't assume that this will be the case from here on in. The Soviets had a bumper crop last year and that is, obviously, not always the situation. Furthermore, the quality of Russian wheat is still an issue and may be competing more with some of our feed crops. (Peterson) "Some of the price conscious buyers are utilizing their wheat but a lot of the middle to higher quality demanding markets are still struggling to find ways to utilize it. A lot of it goes into feed wheat and so the numbers are a little bit misleading. In a way it's competing with U.S. corn exports probably more directly or U.S. winter wheat.