01/09/08 Containers popular in wheat trade to Southeast Asia

Farm and Ranch January 9, 2008 Representatives of Washington's wheat industry recently visited the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh to see if there were any marketing opportunities given Australia's drought and reduced wheat exports. Outgoing Washington Wheat Commission Chairman Randy Suess says quite a few containers are being used to import wheat. Suess: "It is a pretty small unsophisticated market. And we are finding out right now that container shipments to that region are $60 a metric ton cheaper than bulk handling coming in. And it is because of there is such a big demand for the containers coming back to China from the United States. And so there is a great freight advantage right now going in that one direction. It was kind of interesting when I was in Bangladesh and we were having a meeting with 15 different millers, they wanted to know if I had every heard of Genessee Union Warehouse before because they had loaded some wheat at their container facility there and they ended up receiving that. It was interesting to find that out that there is a big demand. Pretty unsophisticated way of unloading those containers, but there is quite a bit of business coming into that area. And that was how they were receiving wheat from Australia too." Suess says there is a need for more container loading facilities in the Portland area where most of PNW wheat exports move through. Currently Seattle has the largest facility. Suess says the did hear about high wheat prices on the trip, and while that might normally mean more switching to rice, he says rice is in even shorter supply than wheat. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.