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Wheat Industry News

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Quote of the Week: “After a rocky start, I’m just proud to turn a partisan bill into a bipartisan bill. That’s the way Congress is supposed to work.”

— House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) following passage of H.R.2, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the Farm Bill, by a vote of 369 to 47; the legislation now awaits President Trump’s signature. The Farm Bill includes renewed funding for export market development programs.

USDA Announces 2019 Trade Missions. USDA will sponsor trade missions in 2019 to Taiwan, Colombia, Vietnam, Kenya, Mexico, United Kingdom and Canada. “Agricultural trade missions offer phenomenal opportunities for U.S. exporters to explore new markets and forge relationships with potential customers,” said Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney. Click here to keep up to date on plans for USDA’s 2019 trade missions.

Planted Wheat Acres Down in Kansas. Wheat acres in Kansas will likely be lower than last year, possibly reaching 100-year lows in the state. Record precipitation throughout the state in October and below average temperatures in November helped add needed soil moisture, but also kept farmers out of the fields during fall harvest and wheat drilling time. Click here to read the full story.

Congratulations. We are fortunate to have devoted, loyal colleagues at USW. This month Program Manager and Secretary Ms. Heydy Langbroek, from the USW Rotterdam Office, is celebrating 20 years. Thank you, Heydy, for your service to our organization, to U.S. wheat farmers and to our customers around the world.

IGP Milling Courses. The IGP Institute will host an Introduction to Flour Milling course Jan. 14 to 18, 2019. No milling experience or theory is required for this course. For more information, follow this link. To register, click here.  In March, the IGP Institute will offer its Buhler-KSU Expert Milling courses in English and Spanish. For more information on the training, follow this link. To register for the English offering, click here. For registration to course Spanish offering, click here.

Thrive Through Change. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture recently sponsored a seminar about how to be resilient in the face of change, featuring Australia’s Denis Hoiberg. Hosted at the Northern Crops Institute in Fargo, N.D., Hoiberg’s presentation is now posted online, compliments of Minnesota Farmers Union.

Wheat Marketing Center Activities. Over the next few months, the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Ore., has an active schedule of events including workshops for wheat growers, courses on laminated dough and an end-product collaborative event with USW. For more information, visit WMC’s informative website at https://www.wmcinc.org/.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our page at https://www.facebook.com/uswheat for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter at www.twitter.com/uswheatassoc and video stories at https://www.youtube.com/uswheatassociates.

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To Ag or Not to Ag*

By Ben Conner, USW Vice President of Policy.

To Ag. That is obviously the answer. The question is if the trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union should include agriculture at all. We already covered that in August after the two governments agreed to begin negotiations.

This week, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) submitted comments to the U.S. Trade Representative on wheat growers’ priorities for the negotiations. The first priority, of course, is that the negotiations should cover agricultural products like wheat. That would avoid running afoul of WTO rules requiring free trade agreements to cover substantially all trade. It would also avoid a likely quick death in the U.S. Congress should an agreement without agriculture be presented to it.

The second priority is that the threat of Section 232 tariffs on automobiles produced in the EU should be dropped. Not only is it an ill-conceived idea to treat imported cars as national security threats, but the potential for retaliation is enormous since the U.S. imported about $40 billion in passenger cars from the EU in 2017.

Assuming those issues are addressed, USW wants to see protective EU wheat tariffs eliminated. Most EU imports from the United States are duty-free, but only for wheat that meets certain quality thresholds. Full tariff elimination would benefit buyers in the EU who may see opportunities to import U.S. wheat with different qualities.

The most significant challenges U.S. wheat growers currently face in the EU are non-tariff barriers also designed primarily to protect EU wheat producers. Pesticide residue and plant breeding regulations, phytosanitary tests and labeling requirements can disrupt U.S. wheat imports and create additional market uncertainty. A comprehensive agreement with the EU is long overdue and should end this sea of troubles.

*With sincere apologies to Bill Shakespeare.

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Global Production Continues to Decrease Due to Weather Problems in Australia and Russia

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst

In its December World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, USDA predicted a 4 percent year over year decline in world wheat production for marketing year 2018/19, driven by severe drought in Australia and current cold, wet conditions in Russia. Australian production is expected to fall 32 percent below the 5-year average, the lowest level since 2007/08. Russian production is expected to fall 18 percent year over year, which would exceed the 5-year average by 6 percent.

While USDA predicts a decline in global wheat production, it expects total wheat consumption to rise. This year, consumption estimates total 744 MMT, 4 percent above the 5-year average. Feed wheat consumption estimate is down 4 percent year over year, but human consumption is up 1 percent year over year and continues to drive overall consumption levels.

Australian drought is driving more than just production numbers. Exports are expected to decrease significantly year over year from 14 million metric tons (MMT) to 10.5 MMT. While production and exports decrease, Australian feed wheat consumption is expected to reach 5.5 MMT, 44 percent above the 5-year average. Total Australian consumption includes 61 percent feed wheat in 2018/19, up 8 percent from last year, as Australian producers struggle to support their livestock through the dry weather.

Pacific Northwest (PNW) free on board (FOB) prices have been relatively stable for the past few months. Soft white (SW) export price remains virtually unchanged from mid-October, while export prices for hard red winter (HRW) and hard red spring (HRS) are on the rise. With Australian exports shrinking, the United States increased exports to the Philippines, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Total exports to South Asia are up 18 percent year over year. The decline in global production and incline in global consumption will continue to support U.S. export prices in the coming months.

The United States holds the largest supply of exportable wheat in the world at 50 MMT. U.S. exportable supplies, as a percentage of top exporting countries, is up 25 percent year over year. While global production is shrinking, as always, U.S. wheat remains the world’s most reliable supply.

 

 

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Administration Help Needed to Protect U.S. Wheat Exports to Japan

Following is a transcript of oral testimony by U.S. Wheat Associates President Vince Peterson at a public hearing held Dec. 10, 2018, by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on potential trade negotiations with Japan.

“Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of U.S. wheat farmers about trade negotiations with Japan.“Our mission is to develop, maintain, and expand international markets for U.S. wheat farmers, and one of our most critical markets is Japan.

“Given its demographic and consumption trends, Japan is generally a market where we seek to maintain our strong 53 percent market share, but today we face an imminent collapse. Frankly, this is because of provisions negotiated by [a previous administration] for our benefit under the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Our competitors in Australia and Canada will now benefit from those provisions, as U.S. farmers watch helplessly.

“Over the immediate past 5 years, Japan is our largest, most reliable and valuable market. The importer is Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries or MAFF. MAFF is the only entity that can import duty-free; all others must pay a prohibitive tariff. After MAFF imports, it resells wheat to flour millers with a significant mark-up; currently in excess of $150 per ton. This is the equivalent of a 60 to 70 percent ad valorem tariff at today’s prices.

“While we certainly wouldn’t hold up this system as an example, it has historically worked for us in Japan. Wheat is higher priced than elsewhere, but MAFF still imports enormous quantities of high quality American wheat. Since the wheat market in Japan is relatively stable, there tends to be little variation in quantity of imports from the US, Canada, and Australia, the three principal suppliers.

“This will start changing in 2019 as the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership) takes effect.

“There will be an immediate seven percent drop in the mark-up for Canadian and Australian wheat. By April it will have gone down by 12 percent. In very real terms, as of April 1, 2019, U.S. wheat will face a 40 cent per bushel, or $14 per metric ton, resale price disadvantage to Australia and Canada.

“After 9 years the U.S. will face an automatic premium of 70 dollars per ton. But by that, time most of the market will be long gone.

“Japanese food processors are looking at ways to reduce their exposure to U.S. wheat right now. They will reformulate products to adapt to wheat from different origins because they will have to. If they don’t, their competitors will.

“We are relieved that this Administration is prioritizing negotiations with Japan. We urgently need a solution that will fix the enormous vulnerability created by CPTPP.

“There are other improvements that can be made, such as ‘WTO Plus” sanitary and phytosanitary rules, but for us, nothing is more important than fixing the mark-up disparity.

“American farmers have been travelling to Japan promoting U.S. wheat since shortly after World War Two. We have had an office in Tokyo for over six decades. We have spent countless hours and millions of farmers’ hard-earned dollars building this market.

“During that time the Japanese milling industry has become an indispensable partner for U.S. wheat, particularly for farmers whose wheat is exported out of the Pacific Northwest. All of that is at risk without a quick U.S.-Japan agreement.

“U.S. wheat farmers and Japan’s flour milling industry hope that we can maintain provisional equivalence for U.S. wheat imports while our two countries conduct ongoing, good faith negotiations.

“We thank you for understanding the plight of these farmers, who are already facing severe trade disruptions in other markets. As you are well aware, the United States has not sold one kernel of wheat to China, our fifth largest export market, since March 1, 2018.

“We urge you to act quickly to save our market in Japan. Thank you.”

For more information about what is at stake for U.S. wheat farmers under the CPTPP agreement, visit the USW website at https://www.uswheat.org/policy/trade-negotiations/ and click on “Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).” Use this link to access USW’s written submission to the USTR on trade negotiations with Japan.

Vince Peterson, President, U.S. Wheat Associates

 

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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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Wheat Industry News

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Quote of the Week: “Everywhere I traveled with Alvaro de la Fuente, his customers always welcomed him as family. Alvaro and his lovely wife Betsy always did the same for colleagues, U.S. wheat farmers and state wheat commission representatives who were lucky enough to visit them and his team in Santiago. That personal warmth and the consistent results of his work, I think, will be Alvaro’s lasting example and legacy.”– USW President Vince Peterson in celebrating the career of now retired Regional Vice President Alvaro de la Fuente.

Disputing Grain-Free Diets. At a recent Oldways Whole Grains Council conference in the United States, several speakers provided reasons to increase whole grain intake and steer clear of grain-free diets. “There are hundreds of studies that substantiate the health benefits of whole grains,” said Kathleen Zelman, director of nutrition for WebMD. Studies have linked whole grain intake to a healtheri gut micro biome, a lower risk of stroke and a lower risk of colon cancer, she noted. Click here to read coverage of the conference by “BakingBusiness.com.”

Farm Bill Status. Today House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders made the following announcement on the state of 2018 U.S. Farm Bill negotiations: “We’re pleased to announce that we’ve reached an agreement in principle on the 2018 Farm Bill. We are working to finalize legal and report language as well as CBO [Congressional Budget Office] scores, but we still have more work to do. We are committed to delivering a new farm bill to America as quickly as possible.” USW trade servicing, technical support and other activities with overseas customers are funded partially by export market development programs included in U.S. farm legislation.

2018 National Wheat Yield Contest. Earlier this month, the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) announced the national and state winners for the 2018 National Wheat Yield Contest. The contest recognizes winners in two primary competition categories: winter wheat and spring wheat, and two subcategories: dryland and irrigated. The 2018 Contest included 82 growers from 23 states. View the list of national winners here and the list of state winners here.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our page at https://www.facebook.com/uswheat for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter at www.twitter.com/uswheatassoc and video stories at https://www.youtube.com/uswheatassociates.

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Alvaro de la Fuente: Celebrating His Career and Legacy

The highlights of Great Plains Wheat (GPW) activities promoting U.S. wheat in South America in marketing year 1976/77 included a baking seminar, equipment donations to the Chilean Milling School, translation of GPW’s “U.S. Wheat” bulletin into Spanish and the hiring of a new Grain Marketing Specialist named Alvaro de la Fuente by Regional Director Don Schultz in the Caracas, Venezuela, regional office. In 1978/79, this young Peruvian national moved to Santiago, Chile, which would be his base for the next 39 years, to serve with GPW Regional Director Robert Drynan. He was named Regional Director with the newly formed U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) by 1981.

 

Looking back on Alvaro de la Fuente’s long and successful career as he retires from USW as Regional Vice President, South America, is a study in how global wheat markets have changed. In 1977, there were no private wheat buyers in South America. Alvaro in fact came to GPW from a position with the government of Peru where he was responsible for purchases and imports of all bulk food commodities including wheat, managing an annual budget of US$380 million. Prior to that, he managed ocean freights for the same commodities.

 

That experience, along with his truly international upbringing as the child of parents in diplomatic service and his Louisiana State University bachelor’s degree in International Trade and Finance, were very valuable not only for his work with government wheat buyers, but also to successfully navigate the eventual shift to private wheat purchases in South America.

 

“That transition happened over the first 10 to 15 years of Alvaro’s career with U.S. Wheat Associates,” said USW President Vince Peterson. “The millers who had relied on the government now had to evaluate wheat quality, tender for the specifications they needed, arrange financing and shipping. Alvaro’s knowledge was ideal for the time and helped build a strong base of demand for U.S. wheat.”

 

Early on, most South American flour mills were relatively small and family owned, and Alvaro’s work was most welcome. But grain marketing skills were only one part of Alvaro’s success in the region. The value of his professional partnership along with his friendly, generous nature helped build beneficial customer relationships that endure to this day.

 

Alvaro can count among his many achievements helping to organize ALIM, the Latin American Industrial Millers Association in 1980. ALIM eventually granted Alvaro honorary membership in recognition of his founding efforts and contributions to the region’s milling industry. Over the years, he hired and helped train many of the colleagues who are now capably carrying on his work in the South American region and around the world.

 

“Everywhere I traveled with Alvaro, his customers always welcomed him as family,” Peterson said. “Alvaro and his lovely wife Betsy always did the same for colleagues, U.S. wheat farmers and state wheat commission representatives who were lucky enough to visit them and his team in Santiago. That personal warmth and the consistent results of his work, I think, will be Alvaro’s lasting example and legacy.”

 

All of us at U.S. Wheat Associates thank Alvaro for his work and friendship and wish him and his family a long and happy retirement.

 

Muchas gracias, Don Álvaro!

 

 

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IGC Data Shows U.S. Wheat Prices in a Rare Position

By Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann, USW Market Analyst

 

The expected turn to U.S. wheat supplies appears to be underway.

 

U.S. wheat exports to price sensitive markets and to typically self-sustaining markets are on the rise due to increased price competitiveness. Fueling this demand for U.S. wheat is, in part, shrinking wheat supplies, especially of high-quality milling wheat following decreased production in half of the world’s major wheat exporters — including Australia, the European Union (EU), Russia and Ukraine. The shrinking supplies in these countries have lifted their domestic and export wheat prices significantly over the past few months. At the same time, a large, high-quality crop pressured U.S. wheat prices lower, resulting in a convergence not seen for several years.

 

According to International Grains Council (IGC) data, free-on-board (fob) French wheat prices rose 11 percent or $23 per metric ton (MT) from the start of the 2018/19 marketing year (beginning on June 1). Russian 4th Grade fob wheat prices have increased $15 per MT, and Australian fob wheat prices have increased an average $13 per MT. IGC data shows U.S. fob wheat prices slipping an average 8 percent due to the large, high-quality crop.

 

As of Nov. 22, IGC data shows U.S. wheat is now at a better value than all the major competitor pairings. U.S. soft red winter (SRW) is the best value milling wheat in the world at $216 per MT, $10 per MT below Russian 4th Grade wheat. U.S. 11.5 percent protein (12 percent moisture basis) hard red winter (HRW) is valued at an average $3 per MT below French wheat. U.S. 14 percent protein (12 percent moisture basis) hard red spring (HRS) from the Pacific Northwest (PNW) is an average $258 per MT, $4 per MT below Canadian CWRS from Vancouver; and U.S. SW from the PNW is an average $47 per MT less than Australian wheat, which is now the most expensive wheat in the world due to the devastating drought they have suffered.

 

The convergence in prices has resulted in increased sales of U.S. wheat as customers seek to secure supplies. Notably, on Nov. 26, USDA reported U.S. export sales of 120,000 MT of SRW to Egypt. The announcement followed an earlier General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) public tender where U.S. wheat was the lowest offer. Coupled with earlier sales, U.S. wheat export sales to Egypt now total 220,000 MT, almost double last year’s and the highest level since 2013/14. The United States has also shipped 64,000 MT of HRW to Saudi Arabia, with trade experts expecting additional demand from the country’s recent optional origin tender.

U.S. durum sales are also benefiting from increased price competitiveness. IGC data shows French durum and U.S. durum from the Great Lakes are now at parity at $240 per MT after French durum production was hurt by poor growing conditions. U.S. durum export sales are up 54 percent year over year at 400,000 MT with the EU being the largest buyer, followed by Algeria and Nigeria.

 

Despite the increased demand for U.S. wheat, U.S. wheat futures remain at or near marketing year lows, pressured by excellent winter wheat crop conditions and good soil moisture in the U.S. Northern Plains.

It is rare for U.S. wheat prices to be in such a competitive position, which represents an excellent opportunity for customers to lock-in their wheat futures price at these excellent levels.

 

To track U.S. wheat prices, subscribe to the USW Weekly Price Report.

 

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Diverse Group of U.S. Farmers Visit Cuban Farms, Discuss Future Relationships

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) is very pleased to see that the grass roots effort to build a lasting, open trading relationship between Cuba is still going strong.

Delegates from the U.S. wheat, soybean, corn, poultry, potato, rice, sorghum and barley industries recently traveled to Cuba to meet with Cuban government officials and farmers. Kansas wheat farmers Doug and Terry Jo Keesling and Kansas Wheat Director of Communications Marsha Boswell represented the wheat industry at the Cuba-U.S. Agriculture Business Conference sponsored by the U.S. Agricultural Coalition for Cuba. The coalition believes that the improvement of agricultural trade between the U.S. and Cuba is the foundation for building successful and enduring relations between both countries.

“The reason I’m here is not to sell potatoes,” said participant Carl Hoverson, CEO of Hoverson Farms, Larimore, N.D., “but to help people live better.”

Boswell reports* that the traditional Cuban diet is made up of rice, black beans, chicken, bread and locally-produced fruits and root vegetables. Much of the food must be imported including an estimated 30 million bushels of wheat the Cuban government currently imports from the EU and Canada. U.S. hard red winter (HRW) wheat is an ideal source for Cuba’s needs, but political choices on both sides related to the long-standing U.S. embargo (known in Cuba as el bloqueo, “the blockade”), prevent that trade.

Under the embargo, Cuba can buy certain U.S. products and may finance the purchases until the products arrive in Cuba, with one exception. Food purchases, which have been allowed since 2000, must be paid in cash up front, before the ships set sail.

Boswell said U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford of Arkansas, spoke to the group about pending legislation that would allow extension of credit terms from U.S. entities to Cuba to purchase food.  Half of the U.S. rice production is grown in his district.

He said, “It’s not about rice; it’s not about wheat; it’s not about chicken. It’s about U.S. ag commodities and market access to areas that have really been difficult for us, and this is a market that I would certainly like to see us participate in.”

After hearing from Cuban government officials who expressed interest in easing trade restrictions with the United States, participants visited a farmer’s market in Havana and toured two farmer cooperatives.

“We are far from reaching our potential. We need technology, modern equipment and timely inputs,” said the president of the first cooperative. For example, Boswell said he noted they know tilling the soil is bad for the land, but that the cooperative does not have the equipment needed to reduce tillage.

While planting genetically modified crops is not yet allowed in Cuba, there is research being done in laboratories. Boswell said Ambassador Juan Jose Leon Vega, Cuban Ministry of Agriculture, International Affairs Division, told the group, “It would be a benefit to the world if it was demonstrated that GMO was safe and could be planted to end hunger. There are 77 million hungry in Latin America.”

Amb. Vega also summarized the position of the Cuban government on trade.

“Farmers in the U.S. and Cuba can have better relationships,” he told Boswell and the other participants. “There is a strong distinction in Cuba between the American government and the American people. We want people to be able to do business together.”

Texas wheat farmer and Vice President of the National Association of Wheat Growers Ben Scholz makes a similar point.

“After visiting Cuba, it is clear that a consistent market for U.S. wheat can be developed in the country,” he said. “With global competition growing rapidly, ending the embargo and easing current regulations that restrict trade with Cuba could provide a much-needed boost for U.S. farmers.”

To read more about USW’s position on trade with Cuba, visit our website at https://www.uswheat.org/policy/trade-barriers/.

*Marsha Boswell’s report on the conference and a list of U.S. participants is posted here: https://kswheat.com/news/2018/11/16/us-farmers-visit-cuban-farms-discuss-future-relationships.

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USW Joins in Support of International Statement Plant Breeding Innovation

On Oct. 30, 2018, an International Statement on “Agricultural Applications of Precision Biotechnology” was released at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. That statement reiterates an international commitment to the fair, science-based treatment of evolving plant breeding methods, like gene editing, around the world. To date, Argentina, which led this effort, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Paraguay, the United States, Uruguay, Vietnam and the Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States have endorsed the statement.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) recently joined 17 other national organizations representing agriculture and science communities in commending the governments that initiated and supported the statement “as a positive step toward improved international coordination. This is crucial to the ability of breeders to utilize new and innovative methods, to increasing choice for farmers and to maintaining trade in agricultural products.”

The groups believe the statement appropriately recognizes that “precision biotechnology products have the potential to play a critical role in addressing the challenges facing agricultural production…” and that “cooperative work by governments to minimize unnecessary barriers to trade related to the regulatory oversight of products of precision biotechnology, including the exploration of opportunities for regulatory and policy alignment, should be pursued where possible.”

“This is a strong showing of support by governments around the world in recognition of the necessity of continued evolution in plant breeding, and the critical role that it will play in ensuring a more sustainable and secure global food production system,” said American Seed Trade Association President & CEO Andrew LaVigne.

View the full statement and list of signing organizations here.

USW supports finding new ways to improve wheat quality and increase production with less impact on the environment. New research in biotechnology and plant breeding innovation, including gene editing, will help make this possible. To learn more, visit our website at https://www.uswheat.org/policy/innovation-and-sustainability/.

 

Kansas State University wheat geneticist and pathologist Eduard Akhunov works recently in the university’s greenhouse. K-State researchers and colleagues from two U.S. universities have identified close to 1 million markers in the genome of 2400 wheat lines, work that will lead to faster and more efficient improvements in wheat varieties.

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