7-13 FB Wheat for Peru

Executives directly involved in making wheat purchasing decisions for five flour milling and wheat food companies in Peru were recently in Idaho to visit farms, research projects and Idaho elevator and flour mill facilities. U.S Wheat Associates is sponsoring this trade team with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service and Agricultural Research Service, state wheat commissions in Oregon, Idaho and Kansas and private exporters.

 Peru produces only a small amount of wheat and has imported an average of about 55.6 million bushels, or about 1.5 million metric tons, annually for the past five years.  U.S. commercial sales to Peru, including hard red winter, soft red winter and soft white wheat classes, have increased during each of the past three marketing years and have grown from 20.8 million bushels in 2009/10 to about 36.8 million bushels in 2010/11.

 In addition, USW is targeting Peru's artisan bread market, which has the highest level of consumption and more potential impact on U.S. wheat sales to Peru as a replacement mainly for Canadian spring wheat imports.