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Promoting Wheat Around the World

As U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) President Vince Peterson often says, at any given hour of the day there is someone, somewhere, talking about the quality, reliability and value of U.S. wheat. Wheat Letter wants to share some of the ways USW was working the past few months to promote all six classes of U.S. wheat in an ever more complex world wheat market.

Brazil. During President Bolsonaro’s meeting with President Trump in March, the Brazilian president announced the implementation of the tariff rate quota (TRQ) that would allow 750,000 MT of non-Mercosur wheat into Brazil tariff free, something USW has pushed for years to be implemented. Soon after the announcement, USW offered support to Brazilian buyers and any purchasing information they may need to consider U.S. now and in the future. When realized, this change will give U.S. wheat farmers the chance to compete fairly for a sizable part of Brazil’s import needs every year.

The Philippines. With funding provided by the Washington Grain Commission, USW organized a team of research and development managers from the Philippine milling industry to take part in an End Products Collaborative in March at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Ore. Recent expansion in the ASEAN milling industry has increased competition and created a need for millers to differentiate their flour products. This activity helps identify the best U.S. wheat options available.

Members of the Philippine Milling Industry participate in an End Products Collaborative at the Wheat Marketing Center.

During the End Products Collaborative the participants visited with the Wheat Marketing Center Board of Directors.

Malaysia. In March, USW South Asia Regional Vice President Matt Weimar conducted two days of trade servicing for a mill in Malaysia, which also has operations in Vietnam and Indonesia. In the past two years, this mill has doubled imports of U.S. wheat to Malaysia alone. Weimar gave a seminar on the World and U.S. Supply and Demand as of March 2019 and shared the value of utilizing additional information resources from USW and USDA.

South Korea. USW Baking Consultant Roy Chung and Food and Bakery Technologist Shin Hak (David) Oh visited Seoul in March to conduct a pre-mix seminar and workshop to demonstrate the versatility of U.S. wheat in a wide range of end products. Workshop participants enhanced their understanding of ingredient functionality and chemical leavening systems while experimenting with new product formulations in pre-mixes.

Participants of the Pre-Mix Seminar with the instructors in black: (L) USW Food and Bakery Technologist Shin Hak (David) Oh; (R) USW Baking Consultant Roy Chung.

Taiwan. In April, USW Regional Technical Director Peter Lloyd spoke at a milling seminar attended by members of the Taiwan Millers Association and faculty members of the China Grain Products Research & Development Institute (CGPRDI). Lloyd’s program focused on hard and soft wheat milling, solvent retention capacity (SRC) and SDS testing methods and their application in the mill, and profitability in the milling industry.

Milling Seminar Participants at the China Grain Products Research & Development Institute (CGPRDI).

China. To meet industry demand for deeper knowledge of techniques in frozen dough production, USW is collaborating with the Sino-American Baking school (SABS), Lesaffre Yeast and Square Technology Group Co., Ltd., to hold three sessions of frozen dough technology courses this year for millers and bakers. During the first session in March, USW Technical Specialist Ting Liu and Asian Products/Nutrition Technologist Shu-ying Yang spoke on the importance of choosing the correct flour for frozen dough by showing how freezing affects gluten functionality.

Panama. USW sponsored a wheat buyer from Panama to attend the IGP Institute Grain Purchasing Short Course in April. The course focused on contract specifications, financing grain imports, grain grading, ocean transportation, discussions of the cash and futures markets and included a visit to an export facility in Portland, Ore.

Spain, Portugal and Morocco. In March, a USW Board Team including farmers from Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming traveled to Spain, Portugal and Morocco to visit customers, millers, government officials and more to listen and learn more about those markets and how they utilize U.S. wheat. Read more about those visits here.

Visiting IFIM and touring the training mill, where the USW Board Team saw equipment sponsored by U.S. Wheat Associates. (L to R): Al Klempel (Montana), Kent Lorens (Nebraska) and Casey Madsen (Wyoming).

Morocco and Tunisia. In April, USW hosted a delegation from Morocco and Tunisia focused on grain storage and management that was part of the USDA Cochran Fellowship Program traveling to Kansas and Texas. This program provides short-term training opportunities to agricultural professionals from middle-income countries, emerging markets, and emerging democracies. Read more about this delegation here.

The Cochran Fellowship Program delegation from Morocco and Tunisia stopped by the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center where they toured its greenhouse and research facilities. The team was escorted by USW Milling & Baking Technologist Tarik Gahi, pictured far right. (Photo Credit: Kansas Wheat)

Italy. USW Regional Marketing Director Rutger Koekoek recently visited Italy for several meetings with the grain trade, milling companies and a leading pasta processor to discuss the advantages of U.S. hard red spring (HRS) and durum crop quality and functional performance in products for the Italian market.

Wheat Research. USW recently worked with CGIAR to create a fact sheet and other support materials promoting the benefits of U.S. investment in global wheat research collaboration.

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Meet the USW Technical Experts: Marcelo Mitre – A Love of Food and Technology that Bakes in Value and Loyalty

Name: Carlos Marcelo Mitre Dieste

Title: Technical Specialist

Office: USW Mexican, Central American and Caribbean Regional Office, Mexico City

Providing Service to: Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward-Windward Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela

Regional Profile: The combination of economic growth, consolidation, increasing urbanization, and a steadily growing population is a catalyst for rising wheat food product consumption in this region. For example, the evolution of franchising, fast foods, convenience stores, snack foods, dual-income households, and more demanding consumers has led to the establishment of new products, better quality, more uniform standards, and a larger overall market for bread but also for Asian-style noodles, cookies, crackers, and pasta. Given the quality and diversity of U.S. wheat supplies and the comparative geographic advantages, USW’s focus on increased technical service and assistance is paying dividends as the region’s demand for wheat continues to grow.

Growing up in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico, young Marcelo Mitre’s experiments in his family kitchen firmly established his interest in food and, eventually, a career in the science of food production.

“I have always loved to eat, and as a kid, I would try to make every recipe I saw in newspapers or on TV shows, and my Mom has many funny stories about my early attempts in the kitchen,” Marcelo said. “But eventually, I was making cakes at home and selling them at my high school.”

Although he wanted to continue exploring his interest, Marcelo did not initially see options to do professional studies in the food sector, so he enrolled as a Marketing major at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

“Then, during a function at school near the end of my first semester, I bumped into this small program called ‘Food Industry Engineering,” he recalled. “When I looked at the academic curriculum, the laboratory courses looked very interesting, and I immediately switched my major.”

A Framework for a Career

Marcelo’s undergraduate experience framed his work today as a Technical Specialist with U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), serving flour milling and wheat food processing organizations in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. Internships at a large brewing company, a meat packing plant, and a frozen food manufacturer gave him experience in different food industries. He also considers his ITESM Professor of Cereal Science, Dr. Sergio Serna-Saldivar, as his mentor.

“After graduating, I continued working at the frozen food products company in Mexico,” Marcelo said, “then Dr. Serna suggested I apply for a master’s program studying cereal science with Dr. Lloyd Rooney at Texas A&M University. My master’s thesis was Barley Tortillas and Barley Flours in Corn Tortillas. We chose the topic because tortillas are the staple food in Mexico, and I wanted to see if we could increase the health benefits and textural characteristics of tortillas.”

Technical Specialist Marcelo Mitre earned a master’s degree with a thesis on improving tortilla nutrition. He continues to promote flour tortilla nutrition and quality improvement using U.S. wheat.

Post-graduate experience in commercial food research and development and technical sales continued Marcelo’s path toward his responsibilities at USW. At Sage V foods in Texas, he developed rice products. At Illinois-based Continental Custom Ingredients, Inc., Marcelo represented the company’s stabilizers, emulsifiers, and ingredient systems with Latin American food customers. He eventually opened a laboratory in Mexico City for that company, later acquired by Tate and Lyle.

“I liked the combination of R&D and sales a lot,” Marcelo said. “I am a very hands-on person, and technical sales gave me the opportunity to interact with the clients and understand their needs. I also liked being in the laboratory using what I learned from the clients to help develop solutions for them.”

The Right Fit for USW

In 2009, Marcelo returned to the United States to work at a cooking fats and oils company in Miami, Fla. At the same time, USW Regional Vice President Mitch Skalicky was searching for the right individual who could serve in a wide-ranging technical position.

“All the candidates I had interviewed were either not qualified or did not fit the profile we needed,” Skalicky said. “I asked a contact at ITESM to let us know if they had a potential candidate. Not long after, Dr. Serna made the connection that brought Marcelo to USW. In Marcelo, we saw a highly intelligent person, having graduated from one of the top universities in Latin America, with a very strong background in engineering, technology, and food science.”

Several things about the job with USW attracted me,” Marcelo said. “It was a chance to continue doing hands-on work across the very active flour and wheat foods industry based in Mexico City but still traveling throughout the region and internationally. Mitch and others explained that this was a not-for-profit organization representing U.S. wheat farmers with a very low turnover of people. That told me this would be a nice work environment.”

Based on customer needs and the annual regional activities plan, Marcelo is responsible for activities that range from helping flour mills blend flour from different U.S. wheat classes to improve product quality and reduce costs, to conducting cookie and bread baking seminars for food processors, alone or with consultants, to pasta production courses across the region.

Baking instruction and quality evaluation with customers in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean is a crucial part of Mitre’s work.

“Marcelo represents the very positive and strategic support we get from U.S. Wheat Associates,” said an executive with a large flour milling company in Honduras. “We know we can count on him to guide us or give us suggestions on how to address a challenge, and we bring him to visit our clients to find ways to improve their processes or products.”

Another regional flour milling executive said Marcelo is a very important link to information about U.S. wheat quality and processing.

A baking company manager in Guatemala also testifies to Marcelo’s technical baking knowledge and how he applies it in workshops to demonstrate the benefits of U.S. wheat flour. The manager added: “I can attest that Marcelo is a responsible person who is committed to his work, is very organized, and has excellent people skills.”

A Balanced Approach

Marcelo said long-distance running, which was something he started in high school “to lose weight,” taught him to balance work, social life, sleep, and training for five marathon races, running four of them in less than three hours!

“There are no excuses if you fail to do one of the four,” he said, “because you will be the only one affected. You become very organized in your life because every minute counts in your schedule.”

“Marcelo has shown an exceptional work ethic combined with the ability to learn quickly, adapt to a diverse set of circumstances and respond in a very flexible way to any challenge,” Skalicky said. “He has the interpersonal skills to work with both management as well as production and quality control staff.”

“It is a pleasure to work with U.S. Wheat Associates, and for the U.S. farmers we represent,” Marcelo said. “The people in all our offices are very friendly, and you can contact anyone, anywhere, about any question, and they will share information without hesitation. Most important,” he added, “our work is focused on giving our customers freely, without obligation, the information and skills they need to improve their products and businesses. And we feel very good about being able to do that!”

Mitre’s work and enthusiasm takes him all over the region, working with various customers and groups.

By Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of posts profiling U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) technical experts in flour milling and wheat foods production. USW Vice President of Global Technical Services Mark Fowler says technical support to overseas customers is an essential part of export market development for U.S. wheat. “Technical support adds differential value to the reliable supply of U.S. wheat,” Fowler says. “Our customers must constantly improve their products in an increasingly competitive environment. We can help them compete by demonstrating the advantages of using the right U.S. wheat class or blend of classes to produce the wide variety of wheat-based foods the world’s consumers demand.”

Meet the other USW Technical Experts in this blog series:

 

Ting Liu – Opening Doors in a Naturally Winning Way
Shin Hak “David” Oh – Expertise Fermented in Korean Food Culture
Tarik Gahi – ‘For a Piece of Bread, Son’
Gerry Mendoza – Born to Teach and Share His Love for Baking
Peter Lloyd – International Man of Milling
Ivan Goh – An Energetic Individual Born to the Food Industry
 Adrian Redondo – Inspired to Help by Hard Work and a Hero
Andrés Saturno – A Family Legacy of Milling Innovation
Wei-lin Chou – Finding Harmony in the Wheat Industry

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Meet the USW Technical Experts: Peter Lloyd – International Man of Milling

Name: Peter Lloyd

Title: Regional Technical Director

Office: USW Middle Eastern, East and North African Region, Casablanca Office

Providing Service to: North Africa and the Middle East

Peter Lloyd’s eyes lit up the moment he saw the MIAG pilot flour mill and baking lab at Mennel Milling‘s Fostoria, Ohio, plant.

Lloyd, who was with U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) colleagues gathering information on new U.S. wheat export opportunities, said: “there is no end to that plant’s potential in soft wheat product development.”

That is strong praise coming from someone who has designed, serviced, and visited more flour mills worldwide than he can count. Lloyd’s USW title of Regional Technical Director does not do justice to his global responsibilities. Based in USW’s office in Casablanca, Morocco, Lloyd travels the world to conduct technical support that helps prove the value of U.S. wheat in the customer’s mill.

“I believe the work I do and that my USW colleagues and consultants do brings the greatest value where it makes the most difference — on the bottom line profit for a supply chain manager, miller or baker,” Lloyd noted. “A clear knowledge of the customer’s business is also vitally important to opening the door to U.S. wheat farmers as valued suppliers.”

Peter Lloyd; Marcelo Mitre, Technical Specialist, USW/Mexico City; Dr. Byung-Kee Baik, Acting Research Leader, USDA-ARS, Wooster, Ohio; Brad Moffitt, Director of Market Development and Membership, Ohio Small Grains Marketing, Program; Tarik Gahi, Milling & Baking Technologist, USW/Casablanca. February 2016 at the USDA-ARS Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory, Wooster, Ohio.

A Storied Career

Just a thumbnail of Lloyd’s professional credentials would be enough to open that door, starting with his British father’s successful flour milling career that took him from Liverpool to Kenya, where Lloyd was born. Intrigued by his youthful visits to mills with his father, Lloyd decided to follow him into the business in 1977.

Milling engineering training and working with Henry Simon in the United Kingdom and South Africa built the foundation for Lloyd to become a mill manager in Botswana in his mid-20s. He returned to the UK with the Simon Group in an engineering sales position in 1986 that, along with his emerging knowledge of high technology applications, led to a job with the United Milling Systems division of the Carlsberg Research Center in Denmark. Lloyd eventually started his own consulting business that continued his work in Africa.

“Then, in 1991, I saw an advertisement in World Grain magazine for the post of Dean of the new Egyptian Milling School in Cairo from an organization called U.S. Wheat Associates,” Lloyd recalled.

Peter Lloyd, left, discusses soft red winter wheat variety development with Dr. Clay Sneller, Associate Professor, Dept. Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, Tarik Gahi, USW/Casablanca and Dr. Byung-Kee Baik, Director, USDA-ARS Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory, Feb. 2016, Wooster, OH.

Per its agreement with its Egyptian business partners at the time, USW had management responsibilities for the school’s development and first two years of operation. Lloyd applied for and eventually earned the position where he directed construction and curriculum development — and discovered a love of teaching. Moreover, he was impressed by USW’s approach to export market development.

“Building trust is crucial, and I think USW’s biggest asset is not having sales objectives. We give advice based upon its merit only,” Lloyd observed. “From U.S. wheat farms to the school in Cairo, we were truly committed to forging a long-term partnership with overseas customers, offering technical assistance without a commercial profit motive.”

USW’s substantial funding for the school ended in 1994, and Lloyd moved on to a technical support position in Egypt with the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), which was, at the time, a fully governmental organization. After the organization was privatized, Lloyd said the drive to meet sales goals, and quarterly returns did not match his values. A return to consulting in the Middle East, including for USW, opened an opportunity to join the Wheat Marketing Center (WMC) in Portland, Ore., in 1996.

L-R: Nihal Habib, formerly with USW/Cairo; Peter Lloyd; Hoda Moawad, formerly with USW/Cairo; two Egyptian grain officials; Tarik Gahi, USW/Casablanca, at a USW Buyers Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 2013.

“Working with the director Bob Drynan (who had also worked for USW and the California Wheat Commission), wheat growers, the grain trade, and the researchers at USDA and Washington State University was one of the most enjoyable periods in my career,” Lloyd recalled. “Perhaps most significant in terms of my future work with USW was the interaction with Asian millers and bakers to learn about the product quality and diversity in their markets.”

An Invaluable Resource

After personal choices drew him back to the UK and consulting work in 1998, Lloyd answered another call from USW to help address some challenges at the new IFIM Milling School in Casablanca. That role grew into a longer-term opportunity to implement a Miller Outreach Program with the goal of building professional expertise and a greater understanding of U.S. wheat quality and value in North Africa and the Middle East through the IFIM school.

“That was very rewarding, but I recognized I needed to get reacquainted with the latest mill operations and moved to a technical milling position in Dubai for two years,” Lloyd said. “In 2005, I returned to USW to run the Tunisian Outreach Program and served in Tunis until 2009. During this time, we expanded the technical assistance role from Tunis to many of the other USW offices in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, as well as supporting the opening of new markets in Libya and Algeria at that time.”

Though much has changed in the last ten years, including his move to USW’s Casablanca, Morocco, office, Lloyd’s work with USW in North and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and occasionally Latin America and Europe in support of U.S. wheat export market development continues today.

Peter Lloyd providing technical support at a Colombian flour mill, October 2009.

“Our objective remains the success of the people we support,” he asserted. “Why? Because successful millers and bakers are most likely to buy what we have to offer: high-quality wheat from high-quality farmers to produce high-quality flour for high-quality products.”

The beneficiaries of his work agree.

“Peter Lloyd has been an invaluable resource for us for the better part of 10 years, giving advice ranging from mill cleanliness and fumigation to more complex topics like milling economics and flour customization,” said an executive with a large flour milling company in the Philippines. “We cannot thank him enough for all his help. He is a true encyclopedia of flour milling.”

A Chinese milling executive said Lloyd’s efforts helped his team better understand the processing characteristics of the individual classes of U.S. wheat.

Peter Lloyd, current President Vince Peterson, and customers at USW Middle Eastern Grain Buyers Conference, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 2009.

“His constructive opinions on our production process have helped us be more efficient in milling U.S. wheat and helped improve the competitiveness of our flour products,” the executive concluded.

“USW is so lucky to have such a talented, charismatic individual like Peter on our staff,” said USW Regional Vice President Ian Flagg, who directs export market development activities in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. “Not only is Peter a great technical asset, he is completely committed to our mission to return value to the farmers we represent and their customers, and that is what he does all over the world.”

“I am doing exactly what I want to be doing at this point in my career with and for some of the nicest people on Earth,” Lloyd said. “Our customers welcome us to their offices, listen to what we have to say, and trust us. Then coming back months later and finding that we helped them improve their business is very rewarding. And the U.S. wheat farmers we work for represent values I hold in the highest esteem: honesty, integrity, human decency, hard work, a love of the land, and a deep respect for our Creator.”

He also remains very upbeat about the global wheat industry.

“End products are made from flour, not whole wheat kernels, so the growth of the milling and food processing industries are inextricably linked,” Lloyd noted. “As much as any foodstuff, wheat-based products have a prominent place in shopping baskets in every country of the world, and for every income group for the foreseeable future — and there are more and more shoppers every day.”

Peter Lloyd visits Mennel Milling, Fostoria, Ohio, Feb. 2016

Peter Lloyd visits Mennel Milling, Fostoria, Ohio, Feb. 2016

By Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of posts profiling U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) technical experts in flour milling and wheat foods production. USW Vice President of Global Technical Services Mark Fowler says technical support to overseas customers is an essential part of export market development for U.S. wheat. “Technical support adds differential value to the reliable supply of U.S. wheat,” Fowler says. “Our customers must constantly improve their products in an increasingly competitive environment. We can help them compete by demonstrating the advantages of using the right U.S. wheat class or blend of classes to produce the wide variety of wheat-based foods the world’s consumers demand.”

Header Photo Caption: Peter Lloyd’s presentation at the 2015 USW Crop Quality Seminar, Cairo, Egypt

Meet the other USW Technical Experts in this blog series:

 

Ting Liu – Opening Doors in a Naturally Winning Way
Shin Hak “David” Oh – Expertise Fermented in Korean Food Culture
Tarik Gahi – ‘For a Piece of Bread, Son’
Gerry Mendoza – Born to Teach and Share His Love for Baking
Marcelo Mitre – A Love of Food and Technology that Bakes in Value and Loyalty
Ivan Goh – An Energetic Individual Born to the Food Industry
 Adrian Redondo – Inspired to Help by Hard Work and a Hero
Andrés Saturno – A Family Legacy of Milling Innovation
Wei-lin Chou – Finding Harmony in the Wheat Industry

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Meet the USW Technical Experts: Ivan Goh – An Energetic Individual Born to the Food Industry

Name: Kong Song “Ivan” Goh

Title: Biscuit/Bakery and Noodle Technologist

Office: USW South Asia Regional Office, Singapore

Providing Service to: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam

Regional Profile: Rapidly rising disposable income and urbanization in South Asia are opening markets for baked goods, biscuits, cakes, and other foods that require more types of higher-quality flour. As the milling and wheat foods industries rush to increase capacity, USW is helping them improve and expand product lines using high-quality soft white (SW) for cake, biscuit, and confectionery flour, and U.S. hard red winter (HRW) and hard red spring (HRS) for bread flour. USW also conducts baking seminars to introduce new products with higher profit margins using flour milled from U.S. wheat.

Common Roots

From far southern Myanmar and southwest Thailand, the Asian continent continues south as the Malay Peninsula to include Western Malaysia and Singapore near its southern tip. Northwest of Kuala Lumpur is the Malaysian state of Malacca. This area has gained a certain notoriety among South Asian wheat food producers as the source of valuable technical support from long-time U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Baking Consultant Roy Chung and now USW Biscuit/Bakery and Noodle Technologist Ivan Goh.

“Roy and I were born in the same hometown in Malacca,” Goh said. “Roy’s father ran a bakery, and my story starts with my family, too. My mum earned a living by selling bite-size snacks called Kuih-muih and fried spring rolls called Popiah. I was nine years old when I started helping her make and sell her food. My interest in cooking and food preparation grew from there. In fact, most of my family members are in food-related work.”

Goh went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Putra Malaysia, and his talent landed him two job offers even before he graduated in 2012. He said because he is “not a shy person who can do routine jobs,” he chose a technical service position with FFM Berhad in Port Klang, Malaysia, that would expose him to as many parts of the flour milling and baking industries as possible.

“The knowledge I gained there has been very valuable,” he said. “I especially enjoyed the opportunities in technical troubleshooting and handling customer complaints.”

He added that the company always taught its colleagues to appreciate the people who helped them in their work, an experience that would prove important to Goh’s next career opportunity.

An Introduction to USW

USW first crossed paths with Ivan Goh when Roy Chung conducted a USW baking workshop at FFM Berhad in 2014. In 2015, the company sent Ivan to one of the popular USW baking courses Chung developed and led with the UFM Baking & Cooking School in Bangkok, Thailand. USW Regional Vice President Matt Weimar was also there to identify potential candidates to fill a vacant technical position in USW’s South Asian Region.

“Ivan Goh was one of the individuals who stood out in terms of their work and leadership,” Weimar said. “He also impressed Roy, so we decided to follow his career path until it was the right time to invite him to work for our organization.”

That opportunity emerged early in 2018, and Goh has been representing U.S. wheat farmers in the South Asian region since last March.

“The wheat foods industry is rapidly expanding in the region, and we knew Ivan’s experience in quality assurance and control was ideal to help flour mills, bakeries, cookie/cracker, and confectionery processors better understand the quality, value, and use of U.S. wheat flour,” said Weimar. “We set up an active development schedule for Ivan. It started with Ivan shadowing Roy at the USW baking classes at UFM, then on an extended technical service visit with Roy to several flour mills and baking customers in Indonesia.”

On the Road

Goh, who is fluent in several languages spoken in the region, participated with millers from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam in a USW Contracting for Value workshop and joined Weimar as co-host of a regional trade team that visited Washington state, Idaho, and Montana last August. That schedule keeps Goh mostly away from a home office in Kuala Lumpur and the USW South Asia regional office in Singapore. But he is very excited about the opportunity.

“Roy Chung is a legend as a teacher and technical resource in this region,” Goh said. “I never imagined that one day I would be his colleague. Another thing that impressed me is that USW is the only wheat organization that invites overseas millers to evaluate the quality of every U.S. wheat crop and sincerely listens to their feedback. That must be part of the working culture because I am also free to voice my opinions.”

Late in 2018, there was additional, extensive training for Goh as a student in Class 193 of the 16-week Baking Science and Technology Course at the AIB Institute in Manhattan, Kan.

“Our goal is to help customers improve their product lines and manage cost risks, so the course further strengthened my confidence in helping large-scale bakeries,” Ivan said. “In addition, seeing the performance and benefits of using flour from U.S. wheat classes firsthand will help me demonstrate how customers can get the most value possible from those flour products in their own bakeries.”

“Ivan received a medal as the fourth-ranked student in the class and was recognized with one of the Bakery Equipment Manufacturers Association awards recognizing ‘Excellence in Laboratory Leadership Performance,” Weimar said. “The relationships he developed with his fellow students will also be very valuable in the future.”

Weimar noted that Ivan Goh has had a very productive first year with U.S. Wheat Associates, adding “we are proud of Ivan’s progress, and we look forward to many more successful technical support activities to come. That is a commitment to our South Asian customers and the U.S. wheat farmers we are proud to represent.”

By Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts profiling U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) technical experts in flour milling and wheat foods production. USW Vice President of Global Technical Services Mark Fowler says technical support to overseas customers is an essential part of export market development for U.S. wheat. “Technical support adds differential value to the reliable supply of U.S. wheat,” Fowler says. “Our customers must constantly improve their products in an increasingly competitive environment. We can help them compete by demonstrating the advantages of using the right U.S. wheat class or blend of classes to produce the wide variety of wheat-based foods the world’s consumers demand.”

Meet the other USW Technical Experts in this blog series:

 

Ting Liu – Opening Doors in a Naturally Winning Way
Shin Hak “David” Oh – Expertise Fermented in Korean Food Culture
Tarik Gahi – ‘For a Piece of Bread, Son’
Gerry Mendoza – Born to Teach and Share His Love for Baking
Marcelo Mitre – A Love of Food and Technology that Bakes in Value and Loyalty
Peter Lloyd – International Man of Milling
 Adrian Redondo – Inspired to Help by Hard Work and a Hero
Andrés Saturno – A Family Legacy of Milling Innovation
Wei-lin Chou – Finding Harmony in the Wheat Industry

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Promoting Wheat Around the World

As U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) President Vince Peterson often says, at any given hour of the day there is someone, somewhere, talking about the quality, reliability and value of U.S. wheat. Wheat Letter wants to share some of the ways USW was working the past few months to promote all six classes of U.S. wheat in an ever more complex world grain market.

Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In October, USW organized a Maghreb cake course, the first of its kind in Morocco, for quality and research and development participants representing biscuit and cake manufacturers in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The course focused on how to best utilize U.S. soft red winter (SRW) and soft white (SW) wheat and the use of solvent retention capacity (SRC) analysis to measure flour quality and functionality. A practical, hands-on session allowed participants to test different cake recipes with a variation of flour types and ingredients. Participants also were given an overview of biscuit, cake and wafer industrial production lines and discussed the importance of ingredient quality in minimizing breakdowns in a cake line.

Indonesia. The Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) and USW Singapore Office conducted a week of hands-on wheat grading workshops for flour milling companies in Indonesia in mid-September. Barry Gomoll, Grain Marketing Specialist from FGIS’s International Affairs Division, traveled with Matt Weimar, USW Regional Vice President, to meet with more than 100 personnel from four major Indonesian milling companies. The workshops focused on an overview of FGIS and wheat grading procedures, as well as world and U.S. supply and demand, 2018 U.S. wheat quality and USW online resources.

South America. More than 450 participants from 30 countries, including Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, attended the 2018 Latin American Industrial Millers Association (ALIM) conference in Puerto Varas, Chile, Nov. 11 to 14. USW President Vince Peterson presented insight into the global wheat market situation and the current U.S. political situation, while Regional Director Miguel Galdós from the USW Santiago Office spoke on current trends in industrial bread production. Multiple USW staff, USW Vice Chairman Doug Goyings and representatives from the Kansas Wheat Commission and Washington Grain Commission also attended and took the opportunity to meet in person with many U.S. wheat customers.

Mexico. In October, USW Baking Consultant Didier Rosada traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, to conduct a baking seminar with one of Mexico’s largest bakeries. With assistance from USW Technical Consultant Marcelo Mitre, Rosada introduce nice different products and instructed the bakery on different uses of pre-ferments in an industrial environment. The pair also took the opportunity to visit a few smaller, artisan bakers, to learn more about the segment and help the customers troubleshoot various challenges.

Korea. USW Food/Bakery Technologist Shin Hak (David) Oh presented at a Whole Wheat Flour Seminar, hosted by Korean Master Bakers Association (KOMBA) and Korea Flour Mills Industrial Association (KOFMIA) for bakers in the Seoul area. Oh shared results of his recent research which focused on alternate flour blend formulations for baguettes using U.S. wheat to improve product quality at a competitive price.

Taiwan. In November, members of the USW staff and Washington Grain Commission representative Mike Carstensen attended the 56th anniversary celebration for the China Grain Products Research & Development Institute (CGPRDI) in Taipei. The celebration included the dedication of a new baking training center building and the 2018 Creative Chinese Fermentative Baking Contest, co-sponsored by CGPRDI and the USW Taipei Office. USW Specialist Dr. Ting Liu was invited to speak and gave a presentation on “Sprouted Wheat – A New Trend in Grain Products.” CGPRDI is a leader in training programs for baking and Chinese traditional food products as well as grain research, technical service and analysis in Taiwan. Carstensen and the USW team participated directly in each activity.

USW Transitions. Chad Weigand recently started his new position as Assistant Regional Director in Sub-Sahara Africa, based in Cape Town. Weigand joined USW in 2009 as Market Analyst before transferring to Mexico City as Assistant Regional Director, Mexican, Central American and Caribbean Region, in 2011. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations and business administration from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University. Weigand spent two years in the Peace Corps as an agribusiness specialist in Ecuador and completed an internship with the Office of Trade Programs at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

Current USW Market Analyst Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann will replace Weigand as Assistant Regional Director in Mexico City early in 2019. Claire Hutchins joined the export market development organization as Market Analyst Dec. 3, 2018, in the Arlington, Va. Headquarters Office.

Bryant-Erdmann joined USW as Programs Manager in 2014. She grew up working on her family’s Nebraska cattle ranch and earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master’s degree from Cornell University’s Institute for Public Affairs. She also had an internship at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Trade Information Center where she helped create educational materials for U.S. organizations looking to export products and services.

Hutchins was raised on an irrigated wheat, soy and alfalfa farm in the high desert near Fruita, Colo. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Chinese language, history and art history from the University of Pennsylvania, worked on small farms on the East Coast and recently completed a master’s program in agricultural economics at Utah State University. Hutchins also worked as a Government Affairs Intern at Syngenta’s Washington, D.C., office.

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Promoting Wheat Around the World

As U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) President Vince Peterson often says, at any given hour of the day there is someone, somewhere, talking about the quality, reliability and value of U.S. wheat. Wheat Letter wants to share some of the ways USW was working in June and July to promote all six classes of U.S. wheat in an ever more complex world grain market.

Sub-Saharan Africa. Flour milling executives from Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Liberia traveled to Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas in June to get the latest information about hard red winter (HRW) wheat quality and value. The delegation experienced each part of the supply chain by visiting the Port of Corpus Christi and local grain elevators, participating in wheat harvest, meeting with USDA officials and discussing wheat quality at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center. Also in June, another delegation from Nigeria and South Africa attended a two-week milling short course at the IGP Institute in Manhattan, Kan. Read more about these activities here and here.

South Asia. In June, the USW Singapore and Manila Offices led a week of Procurement and Mill Profitability Workshops in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Funded by the Washington Grain Commission (WGC), the activities included three full-day workshops focused on commodity price analysis to guide purchasing strategies and increase mill profitability.

Philippines. A delegation of four leaders from the Philippine flour milling industry traveled to Oregon, Washington D.C. and Washington state in June to meet with state wheat commissions, producers and grain traders, and visit a port loading facility and an FGIS dockside laboratory. In the U.S. capital, the team discussed various trade policy topics, including issues related to Turkish flour imports. Read more about this delegation here.

Ecuador and Chile. In June, a delegation of four millers from Ecuador and Chile traveled to Nebraska, North Dakota and Oregon to gain a better understanding of the wheat marketing and the supply chain. The delegation’s travel included visits to HRW and soft white (SW) producing area, an export elevator, FGIS laboratory and meetings with wheat producers and grain exporters.

Haiti. USW staff traveled to Haiti in June to meet with Haitian millers, wheat importers, the U.S. Embassy and the Haitian Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) to discuss and review the status of possible dumping of Turkish wheat flour exports to Haiti and how it negatively affects the local wheat milling industry. Industry sources estimate Haitian Turkish flour imports have reached nearly 40,000 tons annually, and are entering the country at an understated price on the invoice value presented to Haitian customs. Read more about this activity here.

Taiwan. USW collaborated with the Lien Hwa Flour Mill and Chia Nan University in June to host a noodle making contest using flour from U.S. wheat classes. The contest was divided into two groups for machine-made noodle and hand-made noodles. After making their noodles, participants had to include them in a creative dish for the judges. 64 participants entered the contest.

Korea. In June, USW sponsored a Baking Product Development Course for Korean millers at the Wheat Marketing Center (WMC), Portland, Ore., that focused on U.S. wheat flour blending research.

Japan. A delegation of Japanese mid-level mill managers traveled to Oregon, Washington and North Dakota in July to learn more about this year’s crop and better understand the U.S. wheat supply chain.

Honduras. USW conducted baking seminars and in plant consultations with leading Honduran bakeries in July which focused on using new technological advancements. USW Baking Consultant Didier Rosada was interviewed on a live television program for 40 minutes that was disseminated through Facebook to consumers across the country.

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AIB International Empowers and Adds Value to the Baking Industry

By Amanda J. Spoo, USW Assistant Director of Communications

Global demand for wheat food grows stronger every year, making exports vitally important to U.S. wheat farmers. As the export market development organization for the U.S. wheat industry, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) works to help wheat buyers, millers, bakers, wheat food processors and government officials understand the quality, value and reliability of all six U.S. wheat classes. USW relies on its successful working relationships with world-class educational partners that, through courses, workshops and seminars, enhance the technical and trade service assistance to help separate U.S. wheat from its competitors. One of those partners is AIB International (AIB) in Manhattan, Kan.

AIB was founded in 1919 as a technology and information center for bakers and food processors. Its mission is to empower the global food industry to elevate their food safety and grain-based production capabilities. AIB’s staff includes experts in baking production, experimental baking, cereal science, nutrition, food safety and hygiene. While most of its training occurs at its United States headquarters office, both AIB’s physical and virtual overseas offices are involved in coordinating its food safety services as well as public and private training on location.

“AIB has evolved as a company, but that educational piece of our mission has remained at the core of everything we do,” said Brian Strouts, AIB Vice President of Baking and Food Technical Services.

In 2018, USW is sponsoring participants from Japan, China and Hong Kong at AIB courses focused on variety breads and rolls, and baking science and technology. USW Technical Specialist Dr. Ting Liu recently completed the Baking Science and Technology Resident Course, an intensive, 16-week residency held twice a year that combines science, hands-on lab work and baking tradition. Liu shares her first-hand experience at the course in the story (The AIB Baking Science and Technology Course: A Pathway to Success) below.

Participants learn how key ingredients function and interact in baked products, which processes are critical to finished products, sound manufacturing practices and how to manage the production process. The course is accredited by the Kansas Board of Regents, so participants who pass it also receive 60 IACET (International Association for Continuing Education and Training) continuing education units.

“This course is the capstone of our baking training programs and holds quite a bit of weight in the industry because of its historical significance,” said Strouts. “This most recent class to graduate was class 192, and the true value of this certificate is the knowledge of the students who came before them in classes 1 through 191, and what that experience means to them individually and to their organizations.”

AIB also offers an extensive database of online resources, webinars and guides, both free and for purchase. This includes several resources focused on helping bakeries address key elements of the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act.

USW recognizes the value of sending both its own staff and U.S. wheat customers to AIB for training. Strouts explained that the key component of AIB’s relationship with USW is the international perspective from the participants that USW sponsors.

“Our courses — especially one as long at the Baking Science and Technology Course — is an immersion of its participants, their cultures and individual experiences,” said Strouts. “That value is intangible.”

Learn more about AIB and its programming and services at www.aibonline.org.

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Making the Case for Supporting Agricultural Export Market Development Funding

The U.S. Congress is at the beginning of a long process to gain enactment of a new Farm Bill due by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2018. As a member of the Agribusiness Coalition for Foreign Market Development and the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) provides information to the coalitions and to the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) needed to present priorities to U.S. legislators.

Last week, two events happened that potentially affect the work USW does to help its overseas customers gain value from purchasing U.S. milling wheat.

First was a letter sent from Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington State and 43 co-signing members of Congress voicing strong support for USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) as the process of writing a new farm bill begins in earnest.

The bipartisan request to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway of Texas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson of Minnesota urged reauthorization of both programs and incorporation of elements from H.R. 2321, the Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding American Agriculture Trade and Exports Act (CREAATE Act), which would phase in increases in annual funding for both programs.

The letter referenced the dramatically increased competition U.S. agricultural exports now face, supported by increasingly rich government-sponsored marketing from some of the top U.S. agricultural competitors.

The letter also explained that MAP and FMD dollars are matched by private-sector contributions from state and national checkoffs and small agriculture businesses. In 2014, those contributions made up 70 percent of all money invested by organizations participating in the programs and operating marketing efforts overseas. In today’s complex trade environment, promoting U.S. wheat and other agricultural products has never been more important. This is most successfully accomplished with robust global presence, which is supported through MAP and FMD.

Also last week, the first House version of the 2018 Farm Bill proposes a slightly different structure for export market development programs. It consolidates the programs into the “International Market Development Program” that includes Foreign Market Development, Market Access Program, Emerging Markets Program and Trade Assistance for Specialty Crops components. This consolidated program would maintain a budget baseline for the FMD component and provides continued funding for FMD and the MAP component at their current annual levels. The U.S. House Agriculture Committee passed this version of the Farm Bill, which will be debated by the full House.

More about the MAP and FMD component programs and the public-private partnership they represent is at www.agexportscount.org.

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Promoting Wheat Around the World

As U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) President Vince Peterson often says, at any given hour of the day there is someone, somewhere, talking about the quality, reliability and value of U.S. wheat. Wheat Letter wants to share some of the ways USW was working in January and February to promote all six classes of U.S. wheat in an ever more complex world grain market.

Hong Kong. In February, the management of Hong Kong’s restaurant, hotel, resort and supermarket retailing scenes turned out in force to welcome the new USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Agricultural Trade Officer, Alicia Hernandez. Hernandez will lead the trade promotion office that covers the agricultural import markets of Hong Kong and Macau. The Consul General hosted a reception at his residence, which featured a U.S. Food and Beverage Showcase event. Long-time baking consultant Heinz Fischer, who created pastries for the event, USW Assistant Regional Vice President Jeff Coey represented U.S. wheat farmers. In addition to undertaking baking demonstrations, Fischer is a mainstay of the USW sponsored Sino-American Baking School in Guangzhou, with a branch-training center in Hebei province, North China.

Panama. In February, USW Technical Specialist Marcelo Mitre attended the 41st Annual International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) Latin American Regional Millers’ Conference and Expo in Panama City, Panama. Mitre met with representatives of several mills in the Mexico-Central American-Caribbean region. Technical presentations covered a variety of industry topics, as well as a panel discussion on “challenges of the milling industry in the next decade.”

South Korea. In February, USW Country Director Chang Yoon (CY) Kang and Food/Bakery Technologist Shin Hak (David) Oh carried out trade and technical service for two snack food manufacturers in Korea, including one that has applied research done at the Wheat Marketing Center (WMC) Whole Wheat Cookie /Cracker course in 2016. USW staff provided an updated world supply and demand report and forecast for 2018, and encouraged manufacturers to test new U.S. wheat blend formulations to enhance their biscuit and whole grain product quality.

The Philippines. In February, USW Manila Baking Consultant Gerry Mendoza presented as a guest lecturer for a Filipino milling company’s baking course. His presentations on yeast performance and cake science reach 20 participants from both small bakeries and large industrial bakeries. Mendoza also conducted a one-day seminar workshop for 22 participants at the Filipino Chinese Bakery Association Research and Training Center as one of the many regular seminars offered by the Philippine Society of Baking.

South Asia. In January, USW Vice President for Overseas Operations Mark Fowler traveled to USW’s offices in Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong to meet with several customers and members of the grain trade, as well as to conduct supervisory discussions on activities in the region.

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Roy Chung: Selling U.S. Wheat with Sincerity

By Matthew Weaver, Capital Press; Reprinted with Permission

Most U.S. wheat farmers will never meet Roy Chung, but during the last four decades he’s played a vital role in selling the wheat they grow. As the bakery consultant for U.S. Wheat Associates based in Singapore, Chung meets with customers around Asia to show them how to use U.S.-grown wheat in the cakes, cookies, crackers and noodles they sell. U.S. Wheat is the overseas marketing arm of the industry.

His hard work pays off. The countries Chung visits in south Asia — Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Sri Lanka — purchase about 4.4 million metric tons of wheat worth $1.1 billion each year, according to U.S. Wheat. That’s more than 16 percent of all U.S. wheat exported each year.

Chung’s secret: He tells buyers they will not find another, more sincere farmer-owned wheat organization anywhere in the world. U.S. wheat may not be the cheapest option, he says, but it offers the best value.

“In business, all people want to make money; our motivation is to assist them (making) money while getting the satisfaction of selling our products to them,” Chung said. “Hard work and sincerity never fails.”

Industry leaders light up when they talk about Chung.

“It’s in his soul,” said Mike Miller, the U.S. Wheat chairman, a member of the Washington Grain Commission board and a Ritzville, Wash., farmer. “This is who he is. He doesn’t do it for any other country. He’s trying to do it so we can sell more wheat at a better price.”

Chung’s “unparalleled” knowledge of wheat starch properties and how they perform in a food product leads people to seek out his expertise. He helps companies design production lines and new products, said Dana Herron, a Connell, Wash., seed dealer and grain commission board member.

“We would be 20 years behind in marketing and sales if there’s no Roy Chung,” Herron said.

Getting his start. Kah Hee “Roy” Chung, 63, has worked for U.S. Wheat for more than 40 years.

Before that, he assisted in his father’s bakery in Malaysia. Chung was home during college vacation and helping his father, who immigrated from China to Malaysia during World War II, when a consultant from Western Wheat Associates asked to use the bakery for a product demonstration. Western Wheat later merged with Great Plains Wheat to form U.S. Wheat Associates.

“My father was generous in allowing his competitors into the bakery to observe the demonstration as well,” Chung said.

Chung’s father did not speak English and the consultant was working alone, so Chung served as his assistant and interpreter for the event. Months later, he received an offer to join Western Wheat, but declined, as he was not yet finished with school. He was studying production engineering at the Ungku Omar Polytechnic in Malaysia.

Western Wheat waited two years for Chung to complete his education, and he was interviewed by Tom Mick, who would later become CEO of the Washington Grain Commission. Mick hired him to join WWA.

“He has a unique ability to teach people how to make a superior end-product and at the same time reduce costs that would make it profitable,” said Mick, who is now retired.

Mick said Chung could “pull miracles,” convincing reluctant bakers to change wheat or flour sources.

“I think (Chung is) one of the greatest hires I’ve ever been involved with,” Mick said. “To the wheat producer, he is a godsend.”

Selling U.S. wheat. If a buyer is new to U.S. wheat, Chung goes back to basics. He explains the difference in U.S. wheat classes, their uses and the suitability of different classes for the products they make in each country.

He likens this to teaching them the ABCs before turning the letters into words, then the words into sentences.

“For the more experienced buyers, it gets even more exciting if you can string sentences to make paragraphs,” Chung said. “And then paragraphs to make a chapter and eventually chapters into an entire book.”

U.S. Wheat employees, he said, show a company the possibilities they can get from the wheat American farmers produce.

“We will provide examples of how others are making money from the wheat that they buy from the U.S.,” he said.

Chung says he is always sincere in his approach and communication.

“Don’t bring the buffalo to the river to make it drink if the buffalo is not thirsty,” he said.

If a buyer is similarly sincere, U.S. Wheat will hold his or her hand all the way and show them how to extract value in any market, Chung said.

“He’s made those companies so much money using Pacific Northwest soft white wheat, he is highly respected,” Herron said. “People listen to his every word, because he has their best interest at heart.”

Teaching bakers. U.S. Wheat cooperates with United Flour Mills in Thailand to offer specialized baking courses at the mill’s baking and cooking school in Bangkok. Chung was instrumental in offering the first course. The program has continued for 38 years.

“U.S. Wheat finds value in educating young bakers to see and feel the differences in quality when compared to wheats of other origins,” Chung said. “The lasting impression we impart to these bakers (stays) for their entire lives.”

Many bakers trained at the school move on to the upper ranks of their organizations, helping their company expand and securing a stable supply of U.S. wheat.

“I like to say that I impart knowledge that will enable my students to make good judgment,” Chung said. “More importantly, I leave them to pursue their careers in a more passionate way knowing that I, as a representative of U.S. Wheat, will always be there for them. I am sincere when I make this offer.”

As a result of working with Chung, when mills go to grain purchasers with their specifications for U.S. wheat, they know what they want and how to ask for it, Miller said.

“He’s actually helped raise them in the wheat world,” Miller said. “He can go into their mill, they know exactly what he’s talking about.”

And they listen.

“When they hear Roy’s in the house, it’s like Paul McCartney just showed up,” Miller said. “They flock to him. He engages them, he remembers their names, asks them how they’re doing, ‘Have you addressed this problem?’ or they ask him, ‘Hey, we have this.’ They trust him. He’s no-nonsense. He stands behind his work.”

An ‘encyclopedia’. Chung worked closely with Vietnamese flour millers and bakeries to help them understand the uses of U.S. wheat, said Dinh Xuan Quang, technical manager of Vietnam Flour Mills. It took a long time because U.S. prices were higher than those of competing countries.

“Now, in Vietnam, the cookies and cake industry can’t live without soft white wheat,” Quang said.

Wilma Bocaya, vice president of Jollibee Foods Corp., a fast food bun manufacturing company in the Philippines, attended Chung’s course in 1994, after a colleague attended the year before. Her company sends students every year.

“When we met Roy in 1993, we only had 105 Jollibee stores,” Bocaya said. “This number has now grown into more than a thousand in the Philippines.”

The company is expanding its baking operation this year to support further growth.

“Suffice it to say that the technical support we got from U.S. Wheat through Roy as consultant or as course instructor enabled us to provide products that meet our customers’ expectations,” Bocaya said.

Wantana Thongthai, president of United Flour Mills Food Center Co. Ltd., and operator of the baking school, has known Chung since 1988. The company feels strongly that U.S. wheat quality best matches its needs, she said.

“Through my tenure at UFM, I have not met a consultant more knowledgeable in his trade than Mr. Chung,” she said. “He is known among us as ‘the walking baking encyclopedia.’”

Changing times. With the internet, many customers are more knowledgeable and demanding, Chung said. Few countries produce generic flour for breads, cakes and cookies, and most bakeries use specialized flour for specific products.

“We must justify these sales with scientific facts and examples of how this basic information has been used to produce more specialized flours for specialized products,” Chung said.

U.S. Wheat must keep re-educating itself technically to sell wheat at an advantage, Chung said.

“If we fail to do that, we will be just another generic seller, and worse still, a residual seller,” he said.

Chung said it’s not currently possible to retire, since there are few people with his technical expertise in the industry. He’d like to leave his customers in good hands, he said.

He hopes to leave the U.S. Wheat office with a younger team of technical staffers who would work “as passionately and sincerely with our customers as I have.”

If U.S. Wheat hired someone he could begin to train this year, he said, he could see retiring in five years.

Miller, the U.S. Wheat chairman, knows at some point Chung will want to slow down.

“I don’t know if you can replace that type of historical knowledge and energy with one person,” he said. “I bet you’d have to do it with two.”

That could be a good thing for wheat farmers, Herron believes.

“If we had a couple more Roy Chungs, we wouldn’t have to worry about competition overseas,” he said. “He makes that big of a difference.”

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