7-19 IAN Idaho Wheat Exports

 Could the Japanese become close partners with US wheat farmers and executives? It certainly looks that way.

A team of five milling executives from Japan recently made a visit to the United States as part of an annual educational tour sponsored by U.S. Wheat Associates. The team, which represents some of the largest and oldest milling companies in Japan came to Boise, ID,  and met with a team of our top  wheat executives and producers to gain first-hand knowledge of current winter wheat crop conditions. Here is Tereasa Waterman of the Idaho Wheat Commission:  A team of five milling executives from Japan visited Idaho as part of an annual educational tour sponsored by US Wheat Associates, not only in Idaho but also in Washington and Oregon. During their time here in Idaho we reviewed what the crop looked like and what the production level was going to be. They were interested in talking about bio-tech wheat and interested in talking about what our investment in wheat research is. They also wanted to look at price and we talked about the rising production costs here  in Idaho. Idaho exports about 24% of its wheat to Japan every year, approximately 12% of all Idaho wheat production is shipped to Japan.

U.S. wheat farmers have maintained this close connection since 1949, when the Oregon Wheat Growers League (OWGL) organized a trade delegation to Japan. Following that trip, a variety of marketing and educational activities were started in Japan to promote U.S. wheat, including a school lunch program and a “Kitchen on Wheels” that travelled through rural Japan from 1956 to 1960. Japan imports significant amounts of hard red spring (HRS), hard red winter (HRW).