08/09/05 Hard White Wheat, part two

The US government encouraged the production of hard white wheat with an incentive program that's due to expire this year. Incentive or no, Idaho Wheat Commission Administrator Blaine Jacobson says hard white wheat is in demand in Mexico and the larger Asian market. The US provides Korea with 50 percent of its wheat but a decade ago it was 90 percent. JACOBSON "Korea is the world's largest maker of noodles. Hard white is the wheat that they prefer and so Australia has been able to step into that gap that we've not be able to market into." And if Idaho and the US don't grow more hard white wheat for export they may lose part of their 95 percent market share in Taiwan. JACOBSON "They're testing hard white wheats right now and they indicated that they would prefer to buy hard white from the US. They said a good portion of their hard red purchases would be changing over to hard white. Flour mills in Ogden, Utah and California have asked southern Idaho growers for hard white wheat and that makes up the bulk of their domestic market. Jacobsen says there are plenty of new opportunities outside the US borders if the acreage increases. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott