U.S. Wheat Associates Promotes Shirley Lu to Managing Director, China
HONG KONG — U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) promotes Shirley Lu from Country Director to Managing Director, China, effective January 1, 2025, following the retirement of Regional Vice President Jeff Coey on December 31, 2024. She will be responsible for planning and implementing public affairs, trade and technical service programs, and managing USW’s regional staff in Beijing and Hong Kong. Lu will serve in her new position from USW’s Hong Kong Regional Office.
The current USW Hong Kong and China team in the photo above includes: Ting Liu, Technical Specialist, Beijing; Kaiwen Wu, Marketing Specialist, Beijing; Coey; and Lu. Not shown: Aska Tam, Programs Coordinator, Hong Kong, and Elsa Chung, Executive Secretary/Bookkeeper.
Ms. Shirley Lu
“Promoting and maintaining a competitive edge for U.S. wheat to take advantage of opportunities in China is very important and Shirley Lu has earned this leadership position,” said Mike Spier, USW Vice President of Overseas Operations. “She is highly professional with extensive industry experience and strong relationships with customers and partner organizations. Jeff Coey and I know that she will provide a steady hand guiding the future direction of USW programs in China.”
“My work promoting U.S. wheat in China has given me challenges and a sense of common cause with my colleagues, building on the excellent reputation set by our predecessors over many years. To carry on that work in China will be an important mission for me and the team,” said Lu.
Before joining USW in 2012 as Marketing Specialist, Shirley Lu gained 12 years of experience as a wheat buyer for both a trading company and a major mill, building on her professional knowledge to localize the full scope of USW’s export market development programming. In 2018, she was promoted to Country Director, China. A native of Wuzhou, Guangxi, Lu earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Beijing International Studies University.
Under its membership in the World Trade Organization, China has met or exceeded a wheat import tariff rate quota of 9.6 million metric tons (MMT) over the past four marketing years. In marketing year 2023/24 that ended May 31, commercial sales of four U.S. wheat classes to China exceeded 2.11 MMT, or more than 77.52 million bushels. The volume of U.S. wheat sales varies annually so keeping China’s state trading enterprise and private flour millers informed about U.S. price, quality, and value is USW’s primary promotional strategy in the market.
Shirley Lu (center, gesturing) interprets a description of lab work for a Chinese Contracting for Wheat Value team at the Wheat Marketing Center, Portland, Ore., in 2019.
Shirley Lu led a team of COFCO executives to the United States in 2023, including to the ARS Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory in Wooster, Ohio, here with Dr. Byung-Kee Baik, Director (center left), and team participants discussing cookie performance with flour from the 2023 U.S. soft red winter crop.
