Higher-Priced U.S. Wheat Wins Southeast Asia Buyers on Quality

Lorrie Boyer

Reporter

Southeast Asia is standing out as a market that is starting to demand higher quality products. Joe Sowers, regional vice president for the US Sweet Associates in South and Southeast Asia, talks about how the US stacks up against competitors such as Australia, Canada, and the Black Sea region, especially when it comes to the US being higher priced on wheat.

“Our long-term investment in breeding technologies, we, we bred our wheats for targets that for our biggest markets, which is ourselves. We in the United States, we eat hamburger buns and loaf breads and cookie crackers cakes, and so we bred our wheat classes for those, and so really in these export markets we are superior products at the end of the day. Now, are we priced higher than our competitors? Absolutely, it's almost without fail, we're higher priced, but when you come into an automated line, if your inputs are causing problems, if they're not uniform, if they're not consistent, and then you cause a long automated line to lock up or somehow fail, then the costs of that quickly outpace the cost of your inputs.”

Sowers points out that the US Wheat Associates has made a significant investment in the South and Southeast Asia market, including technical education assistance for buyers and adding a marketing staff member to the US Wheat Associates Manila office.