1-31 IAN Wheat Marketing

 Each year - U.S. Wheat Associates conducts more than 10 trade team visits to the U.S. It’s an opportunity to connect millers, bakers and other wheat buyers from around the globe with America’s wheat farmers and the U.S. supply chain. Idaho Farm Bureau Marketing Director Dennis Brower Is part of that effort as he escorted a team of Mexican buyers “Bottom-line the Mexican buyers are looking at long term.” “They want to know what’s going to be available, so they’re out shopping and trying to find the kind of quality of wheat that they need but also the number of bushels.”  The team recently toured for two days different areas in Idaho, in Southern and Eastern Idaho. They were offered some quotes and in a few days they were buying wheat so it was very successful.”

North Dakota Wheat Commission Chairman Fran Leiphon says these trips - supported by checkoff dollars and USDA market development programs - are essential tools to building trust and lasting relationships.  “we like to still meet people and shake hands. That’s important to them and it is important to us as producers to meet with them and to listen to their concerns and try and meet those concerns. We’re not just selling to the elevator, we are selling to that broader market, to the end user and you have to meet the requirements they want in order to maintain those good markets.