USW Bringing Indonesian Milling Executives to Experience U.S. Wheat Supply System
ARLINGTON, Virginia — Three top-level executives from Indonesia’s largest flour milling company will travel to North Dakota and the Pacific Northwest August 17 to 27, 2016, with U.S. Wheat Associates to learn how they can select and efficiently import different classes of U.S. wheat. The millers work for Bogasari, which operates four separate flour mills in Indonesia. These managers in quality and product development, production planning and finance will see and hear how U.S. hard red spring (HRS), hard red winter (HRW) and soft white (SW) can help them meet the needs of their growing market.
Funding for this trade team visit comes from USDA through its Foreign Agricultural Service export market development programs and from in-kind contributions from the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, the Idaho Grain Commission, the Washington Grain Commission, the Oregon Grain Commission and the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, OR.
“USW has had success demonstrating to Indonesian mills the processing advantages of flour made from U.S. hard red spring and winter wheat for bread products,” said USW Regional Vice President Matt Weimar, who will lead the Bogasari team. “We are also promoting soft white for superior performance in cakes, cookies and other soft wheat products. This visit supports those strategies very well.”
The team will start its visit in Fargo, ND, with the North Dakota Wheat Commission, North Dakota State University and Northern Crops Institute focusing on the advantages of HRS and the on-going work to improve functional performance. Next is a visit to Greg Svenningsen’s farm in Valley City, ND, and a country elevator owned by Columbia Grain before the team flies west to Portland. The visit there and then back up-country to eastern Washington and northern Idaho provides a complete picture of the U.S. Pacific Northwest wheat supply system and a detailed look at SW advantages.
“With U.S. wheat at a price disadvantage compared to Canadian wheat the last couple years and with Australia’s strong influence with Indonesia nearby, it is important to bring top-level managers from a large mill like Bogasari that has a majority market share to the United States to put a face on our advantages,” said Weimar. “It makes a difference when the buyer meets the breeders, farmers and grain handlers who actually make U.S. wheat the world’s most reliable supply.”
USW is the industry’s market development organization working in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to “develop, maintain, and expand international markets to enhance the profitability of U.S. wheat producers and their customers.” USW maintains 17 offices strategically located around the world to help wheat buyers, millers, bakers, wheat food processors and government officials understand the quality, value and reliability of all six classes of U.S. wheat. Its activities are made possible through producer checkoff dollars contributed by 18 state wheat commissions and cost-share funding from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
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