Wheat Export Opportunities to Chile

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

The U.S. wheat industry saw major export growth in 2022 after the 2021 drought limited exports. Miguel Galdos with U.S. Wheat Associates says that growth could be just beginning. He says familiar uses like flour for the bread-loving population are valuable opportunities for American exporters.

Galdos… “Chile is the largest bread consumer in Latin America and the second largest bread consumer in the world. It's over 90 kilos per person per year. We know that we cannot increase that number. It will be very difficult because you cannot eat bread while you are sleeping. But what we want is to maintain that level.”

But he says use of U.S. wheat for Chile’s aquaculture industry is a major demand opportunity.

Galdos… “We identified that Hard Red Winter has a particular performance for the production of feed for salmons. This opened up a complete new market for us in the south. Also, we have been able to identify small mills in the south of Chile that they never imported wheat from the U. S. And today we have identified, as I mentioned, 10 milling companies that today are importing U. S. wheat.”

Galdos says the industry believes the salmon feed industry could double American wheat exports to Chile.