wheat quality Archives - U.S. Wheat Associates

Noodles are the staple product in South Korea that represent more than 50 percent of Korean wheat food consumption. For many years, manufacturers have preferred Australian wheat to produce noodle flour, and specifically “Australian Noodle Wheat” that helps produce an end product with the color favored by consumers. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service cooperator U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) is addressing the competitive advantage and increasing market share by providing technical service funded by the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program.

Every year since 2015, the USW Seoul Office conducts a Korean Noodle Flour Development short course at the Wheat Market Center (WMC) in Portland, Ore., and a Noodle Flour Blending Seminar in Seoul to demonstrate the advantages of blending with U.S. wheat.

Representatives from one noodle manufacturer and two mills from Korea attended the 2017 course, where they researched flour blends using an increased percentage of U.S. wheat flour in instant noodle products. The participants concluded that using more U.S. wheat still allowed them to maintain the preferred product color and quality while reducing input costs. Blends include varying percentages of flour from U.S. soft white, hard red spring and hard red winter wheat classes.

In December 2017, USW shared the course results and reviewed quality parameters with Korean noodle manufacturers and flour millers. A highly regarded local expert presented information on quality parameters affecting noodle flour functionality. Because of this, one company said that they intend to use HRS for a new end-product line in 2018. Another company reported that they increased U.S. wheat percentage in their noodle formulation from 50 percent in CY15 to 90 percent in CY17, and is also using U.S. wheat flour in their export product portfolio, which increased by 20,000 metric tons (MT) in CY17. And a third company reported that they also increased U.S. wheat in their blends in CY17, absorbing 10,000 MT of additional U.S. wheat flour. All participants reported that the seminar provided a valuable opportunity to share information on improving noodle quality.

Despite lacking a single U.S. wheat class with optimal noodle quality, USW’s efforts — funded by state wheat commissions, MAP and FMD — have helped secure a 20 percent share of the wheat imported for the Korean noodle market. The top four instant noodle manufacturers in South Korea consistently now use more than 45 percent U.S. wheat, up from less than 25 percent in 2009.

May 1, 2018/by Erica Oakley

Cake and pastry consumption in the People’s Republic of China is growing but millers there struggle to produce the best flour for their customers. By leveraging expertise on its staff and working with public and private partners, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service cooperator U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) were increasing exports of soft white wheat to China for farmers in Washington state, Oregon and Idaho prior to the implementation of retaliatory tariffs.

Soft white (SW) wheat mills into excellent cake and pastry flour needed to meet growing Chinese demand. Chinese mills have some influence on what type of wheat may be imported and may import a limited amount of wheat privately. This supports USW using funding from the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program to promote SW performance and help millers purchase it and mill it.

In June 2017, USW brought six executives from four Chinese flour mills to Portland, OR, to participate in a wheat procurement course and visits to the USDA-ARS Western Wheat Quality Laboratory in Pullman, WA, and SW breeding programs in the Pacific Northwest.

In China, USW arranged technical support meetings at local flour mills. Its Beijing and Hong Kong staff set up local trials with millers to demonstrate SW flour performance in Chinese and Western style baking. USW continued sending consultants to the Sino American Baking School in Guangzhou to teach new bakers the best uses of SW flour in cakes and pastries.

Also in 2017, USW and flour mill manufacturer Buhler teamed up to put on a week-long technical seminar focused on the milling of SW at Buhler’s location in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Peter Lloyd and Buhler experts addressed 16 managers from eight Chinese mills who all reported that the seminar addressed some of the unfamiliar challenges of milling SW.

After importing less than 52,000 metric tons (MT) of SW in marketing year 2015/16 (June 1 to May 31), China purchased more than 227,500 MT in 2016/17. In 2017/18, China’s imports of SW stood at 307,000 MT. USW staff notes that much of this volume was imported by trading companies that had to pay out of quota duties on the wheat, in the hope of selling it on to Chinese mills willing to pay a premium over domestic wheat.

That year, prior to the trade conflict with China, total U.S. wheat exports reached 1.6 MMT with returns of more than $330 million 2017/18 to wheat farmers and related industries in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

May 1, 2018/by Erica Oakley

It can be an uphill battle to convince milling wheat buyers to opt for premium-priced, but better performing, U.S. wheat. Long-term investments funded by wheat farmers through state wheat checkoff programs, the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, however, have yielded significant gains.

In the Philippines, USW has helped flour millers and commercial food companies build and maintain a multi-year campaign to increase consumption of wheat-based foods. Over the past five years, annual per capita consumption of wheat in the island nation has increased from 23 to 29 kilograms. That is an annual demand increase of 600,000 metric tons of wheat, with an estimated 97 percent of that wheat coming from the United States.

U.S. wheat enjoys this level of market dominance because the program investments have helped USW stay “on the ground” in the Philippines and other Asian markets for decades, making trade and technical service calls and conducting wheat food production training. USW Regional Vice President Joe Sowers says the producer funds, FMD and MAP are essential to building trust with buyers and end-users who also look to USW for advice.

For example, a large Filipino flour miller had collaborated with USW on several activities and immediately following its participation in the Buhler-KSU Executive Milling Course at IGP Institute in Manhattan, KS, June 12 to 16, 2017, the mill started printing “Guaranteed 100% U.S. Wheat” on its flour bags. This effectively locked the mill’s 90,000 MT of annual wheat purchases into U.S. origin supplies. This change also influenced another flour mill that conducts cooperative shipping with the first mill to purchase only U.S. hard red spring (HRS) wheat even though Canadian spring wheat was offered at an FOB export price of $35 per metric ton less than U.S. HRS.

USW’s work to establish U.S. origin wheat as a quality standard for Philippine flour directly contributed to 175,000 MT of HRS sales in marketing year 2017/18 (June 1 to May 31) with an estimated FOB value of $50 million. Overall, the Philippines purchased more HRS and more U.S. soft white (SW) wheat than any other country in 2017/18.

May 1, 2018/by Erica Oakley

U.S. wheat is seldom the least-cost option for importers, but it has a reputation for quality that adds critical value. Recognizing that quality starts with the seeds farmers sow, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) cooperator U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) gathers feedback from its overseas customers that is shared with the scientists who breed new wheat varieties at home.

With partial funding from the Foreign Market Development program, for example, USW and state wheat commissions in Oregon, Washington, North Dakota and Minnesota organized a Wheat Quality Improvement Team (WQIT) of four university wheat breeders to meet with customers in Japan, Korea and Thailand April 18 to 26, 2015.

The breeders heard what wheat buyers, flour millers and wheat food producers like and do not like about U.S. soft white (SW) and hard red spring (HRS) wheat quality. At the same meetings, the breeders informed these customers about their work to improve the quality and yield potential of newly released varieties. This was the fourth WQIT led by USW. In 2004, a similar trip was made to Asia, followed by Latin America in 2009, and Europe and North Africa in 2010.

The team also took part in an Overseas Variety Analysis (OVA) program event at the UFM Baking School in Bangkok, Thailand. Through OVA, USW creates direct comparisons between U.S. varieties and competing wheat supplies. Working with the Wheat Quality Council, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, state universities and wheat commissions, USW selects new varieties to mill and sent to overseas cooperators in top markets who analyze their quality in end-use projects and compare them to standard control flours.

Feedback from the OVA program and this year’s WQIT will bring results home to the farm. The next step for the WQIT is to apply the feedback and observations to research and wheat breeding programs, as well as share insights with other breeders, wheat producers and invested state wheat commissions. The OVA data will be shared with state wheat commissions and the Wheat Quality Council to set quality targets for breeding research and to develop recommended variety lists for farmers.

These activities create a primary basis for continual improvement in U.S. wheat quality that in turn supports import demand each year. USW used the Foreign Market Development program help fund the recent WQIT and the Market Access Program to engage customers and breeders through the OVA program.

December 31, 2015/by Amanda Spoo

Building Chinese Demand for U.S. Soft White Wheat

Establishing U.S. Wheat as Quality Standard in The Philippines

Wheat Quality Improvement Programs Support U.S. Wheat Value Proposition

Our Story

Market Information

Crop Quality

Working with Buyers

Who We Represent

Policy

News