Wheat Exports to Mexico

David Sparks Ph.D.

 Most of what we’ve been hearing about Mexico lately involves illegal immigration or Swine Flu and wouldn’t it be nice to learn about something positive between Idaho and our friends South of the Rio Grande. How about wheat sales…as in the sale of Idaho hard white to millers in Mexico who make a bread out of the wheat that Mexicans like…and it also helps tackle the obesity problem that they are facing…just like we are.

 Here’s Gary Fuhriman, Director of Commodities and Marketing for the Idaho Farm Bureau. “We usually make a couple of trips each year and visit with the millers all over Mexico. This has developed a market to where a number of different millers all over Mexico in the past few years have been buying some grain from Idaho. In January there was right around 66,000 bushels of Durham wheat that was shipped down to Mexico and here towards the end of this week, there’ll be about 82,500 bushels of hard white wheat. One reason they like the hard white wheat is the Mexican government is trying to encourage the people to go to a whole wheat bread because of the obesity situation and the Mexican people really like that. And so do we in Idaho.