6-15 IAN Japan buys Wheat

 Here’s your question of the day. We all know that Idaho producers grow and sell vast amounts of wheat as do many farmers throughout the entire Northwest. Okay here comes the question. What country do you think consumes the major amount of our wheat exports?

 I had a conversation the other day with Thereasa Waterman from the Idaho Wheat Commission. We discussed the devastating effects of the earthquake and tsunami on our good friends from Japan. During the conversation I asked Theraesa if this tragedy had resulted in great wheat sales to Japan and was surprised that they are always good customers. Here she is: “ Japan has purchased significantly more U.S. wheat  than any other country, importing more than 133,000,000 bushels per year on average for the last five years. We have exported a little bit more this last year because of not the tsunami but because other countries like Canada and Australia had problems with their wheat crop. So we were seeing across the board and increase in exports this year not just in Idaho, but across the United States because of the problems. All of this helped Idaho wheat farmers and U.S. wheat farmers in general.”