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USW Video Team Focuses on Supply Chain and Soft White Wheat Seeding in Oregon

Every year, several trade delegations of overseas buyers, millers, bakers and government officials visit the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Its proximity to many stops along the wheat supply chain allows customers to witness the reliability and transparency of the U.S. grain marketing system firsthand. This includes Padget Ranches, on the arid Columbia Plateau above the John Day River, where Darren Padget’s family has farmed since 1910. As one of many U.S. farm families who contribute to the wholesome quality of U.S. wheat for dozens of food products around the world, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) traveled to Oregon to include Padget’s story and the PNW supply chain in a video it is producing. With previous visits to Kansas, Ohio, Washington state, North Dakota and Oklahoma the project will be completed in 2020 and include additional farm families and information about the U.S. wheat supply system.

 

Darren Padget

Darren Padget stops for an interview during seeding.

Today, Darren farms with his wife Brenda and their son Logan, as well as his dad Dale, a retired wheat farmer who recently participated in his 67th wheat harvest. Their dryland wheat and summer fallow rotation currently produces registered and certified seed on 3,400 acres annually. Darren started his involvement in wheat leadership with the Oregon Wheat Grower’s League and the National Association of Wheat Growers, before being appointed to the Oregon Wheat Commission by the state’s Director of Agriculture. Currently, he serves on the USW Board of Directors as Vice Chairman and is slated to serve as Chairman in 2020/21.

Darren Padget and USW Director of Communications Amanda Spoo

USW and the video crew also visited United Grain Corporation (UGC) in Vancouver, Wash., to speak with UGC President and CEO Augusto Bassanini – a long-time friend of USW – and capture footage of the receiving and export process at UGC’s export terminal. The team’s final stop on this trip was at the Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) in Portland, Ore., to capture footage demonstrating the U.S. wheat industry’s differential advantage in its effort to consistent meet high quality grain standards.

USW with its video crew and creative agency, 502, at United Grain Corporation.

Capturing barge and rail footage along the Columbia River.

USW wants to thank Oregon Wheat’s Chief Executive Officer Blake Rowe and Director of Communications Shanna Hamilton for their help and participation in this project, as well as UGC and FGIS staff for hosting us at their facilities. And many thanks to the Padget family for graciously taking the time out of their day to share their story and welcome us to their ranch.

Federal Grain Inspection Service

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Good Milling and End-Product Performance is Available in 2019 Hard Red Winter Wheat Supplies

Unexpectedly high yields from the U.S. Plains to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) resulted in lower wheat and flour protein in the 2019 hard red winter (HRW) wheat crop, but the crop exhibits good milling and end-product characteristics. Even though mixing times and tolerances are shorter than the five-year averages, the loaf volumes achieved indicate there is adequate protein quality to make quality bread. This crop meets or exceeds typical HRW contract specifications and should provide high value to the customer. The 2019 HRW crop can be characterized as clean and sound with very good milling properties, but with below average protein content still capable of producing good end products.

That is a summary of the major regional results for HRW from the upcoming U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) 2019 Crop Quality Report. California HRW data is reported separately. Plains Grains, Inc., in cooperation with the USDA/ARS Hard Winter Wheat Quality Lab, Manhattan, Kan., analyzed 494 HRW samples collected from grain elevators in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Funding for the annual survey come from USW member state wheat commissions and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

Weather and Harvest: The 2019 HRW planted area represents near historic 100-year lows, continuing the trend of recent years. Despite stagnant planted area, HRW production is estimated at 22.9 MMT (840 mil bu), a 27% increase over 2018. USDA estimates the HRW supply (excluding imports) is the third highest in the last 20 years.

Various climatic conditions challenged this crop. However, moisture remained adequate, or even excessive, in the central and southern production areas and resulted in better than expected yields, lower than average protein, but otherwise good milling and processing characteristics. The U.S. Southern, Central and Northern Plains experienced an unusually wet spring, slowing crop maturity and uniformly delaying the beginning of harvest two weeks or more. At the same time, the PNW and Montana experienced abnormal swings in temperature and severe storms. Despite intense and prolonged moisture during later stages of crop development, disease and insect pressure in most production areas was unusually low.  Once harvest began, it progressed normally in most production areas.

Wheat and Grade Data: The 2019 crop has generally very good kernel characteristics. Overall 93% of Composite, 91% of Gulf-Tributary and 97% of PNW-Tributary samples graded U.S. No. 2 or better. Average test weight of 60.6 lb/bu (79.6 kg/hl) is below 2018 but above the 5-year average. Average dockage (0.5%), total defects (1.3%), foreign material (0.2%) and shrunken and broken (0.8%) are all equal to better than 2018 and the 5-year averages. Average thousand kernel weight of 32.7 g significantly exceeds last year and the 5-year average (both 30.7 g). Kernel characteristics, including test weight, thousand kernel weight and kernel diameter are very good and consistent with favorable growing conditions. However, growing conditions favoring kernel size and test weight are not conducive to accumulating protein, which is below last year and the five-year averages. The average wheat falling number is 378 sec, indicative of sound wheat.

Flour and Baking Data: The Buhler laboratory flour yield average is 74.0%, comparable to the 2018 average of 75.1% and the 5-year average of 75.5%. The 2019 flour ash of 0.48% (14% mb) is comparable to last year’s 0.44% but significantly lower than the 5-year average of 0.55% due to milling adjustments made in 2018. The alveograph W value of 223 10-4 J is significantly lower than last year but comparable to the 5-year average of 234 10-4 J. Farinograph peak and stability times, 3.3 min and 7.3 min, respectively, are significantly lower than last year’s 5.2 min and 12.2 min. Average bake absorption is 62.7%, below the 63.7% value for 2018 but comparable to the 5-year average. Overall loaf volume averaged 863 cc, well below last year’s 901 cc, but comparable to the 5-year average of 851 cc.

Complete 2019 crop quality data for all six U.S. wheat classes will soon be available online and at annual USW Crop Quality Seminars.

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It Takes Some PhDs to Bake a Cake

By Michael Anderson, USW Assistant Director, West Coast Office

Reading the directions on the back of a cake mix box and adding the ingredients step by step may seem simple enough but it is no easy feat to ensure the consumer ends up with a consistent cake from box to box. How do baked good brands stay the same store to store, how does a cake get its perfect lofted middle, how do crackers keep their shape? The answer is simple: from science. Yet the means of getting there is anything but simple.

Two familiar names leading the discussion on U.S. wheat quality characteristics and versatility through education and training are Dr. Jayne Bock, Technical Director, and Dr. Lingzhu Deng, Food Scientist, of the Wheat Marketing Center, Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Jayne Bock, Technical Director, Wheat Marketing Center

Both Dr. Bock and Dr. Deng have food science backgrounds and roots in farming. Dr. Bock grew up in Kansas where her family had a wheat farm and Dr. Deng grew up helping her uncles on their rice farm in Southern China. Deng said that the poor growing practices in the area inspired her to find a better way which as an accomplished cereal scientist, she has.

Dr. Lingzhu Deng, Food Scientist, Wheat Marketing Center

These scientists say they enjoy research and academia, which is key to a job tasked with improving end-product quality. Their role at the Wheat Marketing Center is to improve the understanding of wheat functionality and end use characteristics. They assist overseas customers with hands-on opportunities, allowing visiting technical teams to objectively judge the quality and functionality of a given product.

Many markets that purchase U.S. wheat are well developed with a sophisticated knowledge of what characteristics they are looking for. Those customers however, may be interested in new food trends and the ingredients needed to produce them. Technicians from markets where demand for wheat foods is still less developed may not be as aware of the importance of functionality as it relates to end-product quality or cost. Bock and Deng are eager to help customers develop the answers they seek.

Many experienced bakers know that quality products start with quality flour. Flour from a strong, extensible hard wheat is great for bread, but a mellower soft wheat makes the best cake flour. High ash content may make good bread products, but you do not want it in your cake. Selecting the right flour ingredient is complicated, so it makes sense that it takes highly trained PhDs to help build the practical knowledge needed for any type of product.

As wheat food demand sets new records across the globe almost every year, businesses look for ways to make more products that are attractive to more consumer market segments. Automation has become an increasingly important component of the baking industry and, as bakers try to keep up with and expand demand for their products, knowledge of wheat quality characteristics and consistency becomes more important.

Dr. Jayne Bock discussing wheat quality and sustainable production at the 2019 USW World Staff Conference.

There is a lot of thought that goes into something that seems as simple as a cake or a pizza. At the Wheat Marketing Center, it takes two PhDs plus a successful support staff to help keep the wheat flour and foods industry advancing and help U.S. wheat customers around the world develop a more sophisticated understanding of ingredients and processing. It is an understanding that Dr. Bock and Dr. Deng are eager to share.

Dr. Lingzhu Deng is a Food Scientist at the Wheat Marketing Center.

For more information about how the Wheat Marketing Center provides training opportunities and product development assistance, visit its website at https://www.wmcinc.org/. In addition, you can read a U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) profile of the Wheat Marketing Center online at https://bit.ly/2MPSOYw.

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U.S. Wheat Farmers Welcome New Chinese Imports, Hope for Long-Term Solutions

On Oct. 3, USDA announced that private exporting companies reported export sales of 130,000 metric tons (MT) of U.S. “white wheat” to China. That is welcome news for U.S. wheat farmers.

Chinese imports of U.S. soft white (SW), hard red spring (HRS) and hard red winter (HRW) wheat classes to China were trending up but abruptly ended when China implemented retaliatory tariffs on U.S. wheat and other agricultural commodities in March 2018. Private purchases of approximately 32,000 MT of HRS and 8,000 MT of SW have been the only sale since then.

“We are glad for this purchase ahead of the latest round of trade discussions between the U.S. and China,” said Doug Goyings, USW Chairman and a wheat farmer from Paulding, Ohio. “It remains to be seen if this is the start of a return to steady purchases by China. In the long run, that is what our farmers need along with good progress toward an agreement and continued support for the rules-based trading system that has given them access to more markets.”

USW Chairman Doug Goyings.

“Even though China has huge domestic wheat stocks, they were buying more U.S. wheat because they need it to meet the growing demand there for higher quality wheat foods, until their government retaliated against U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods,” said Vince Peterson, President of U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the organization funded by farmers and the U.S. government to promote wheat exports. “So, we hope the new purchases signal a potential turn-around.”

USW President Vince Peterson.

Predictable access to markets is key for USW and their customers. Beyond the retaliatory tariffs that China has applied to U.S. commodities, China has been a challenging wheat importer historically. In recent dispute settlement cases at the WTO, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) demonstrated that, with respect to wheat, China’s government has consistently violated the trade rules it agreed to when it joined the WTO. The country’s domestic support for wheat substantially exceeds its WTO limits and it has never fully met its tariff rate quota for imported wheat. Those two policies have serious effects on farm gate wheat prices and trade. Going forward, USW is optimistic that China will eventually comply with the WTO rulings to facilitate more open trade in wheat.

Read more: U.S. Wheat Farmers Have Not Abandoned Customer Service in China

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Wheat Industry News

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “The U.S. farmer is still holding about half a [hard red] spring wheat crop from last year that will provide some decent quality supplies. Canada, on the other hand, was an aggressive exporter of wheat last year; a poor quality crop will reduce their exportable supplies in this marketing year.” – Michael Krueger, Independent Market Analyst.

Columbia River Reopens to Barge Traffic. A critical navigation lock on the lower Columbia River reopened Sept. 27, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That means barges full of grain and other materials waiting to get from Inland Northwest ports to Vancouver and Portland and out to export markets can resume. Boat traffic on the international trade route has been stopped since September 5 to repair a lock at Bonneville Dam. Crews with the Army Corps’ Portland division have been working around-the-clock the past three weeks to open the channel. Read more here.

New Partner in New Grain Trade Initiative. Glencore Agriculture Ltd. is joining several other major grain traders in the industry’s initiative to modernize global agricultural commodity trade operations. The initiative is looking at such new technologies as blockchain and artificial intelligence to automate grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes, reducing costs needed to move agricultural and food products around the globe. The group is projecting launch of a new platform in the second half of 2020 subject to regulatory approval. Read more from a joint news release here.

More Women Are Running U.S. Farms. According to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture, over the last five years, the number of female farmers in the United States has increased, while the number of male farmers declined. Women now represent 36% of farmers, a 27% increase from 2012. Now, 56% of farms have at least one female producer, although only 38% have a female primary producer, the person who makes the most decisions on the farm. USW looks forward to sharing the story of several women engaged in wheat production in 2020. Currently, two female farm owners serve as directors of USW: Rhonda K. Larson grows HRS wheat in northwestern Minnesota and was elected as USW Secretary-Treasurer for 2019/20; Denise Conover grows HRS and HRW wheat in south central Montana. Past Chairperson Janice Mattson of Chester, Mont., served as USW director and an officer, holding the chair in 2009/10.

Oregon Wheat Seeking New Chief Executive Officer. The Oregon Wheat Commission and Oregon Wheat Growers League are seeking a dynamic and proven Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to provide leadership, vision, focus, and unity to their organizations, following the announcement that Blake Rowe plans to retire from the position. The CEO will serve as the principal administrator of both the OWC and OWGL, operating under the direction of the OWC and the Board of Directors of the OWGL, respectively. The full job announcement and position description can be found at www.owgl.org/careers. Applications must be submitted by 4:00 PM on Oct. 20, 2019.

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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Production Update: USDA Confirms High U.S. Wheat Yields Offset Reduced Planted Area

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst

On Sept. 30, USDA released its Small Grains Summary noting that 2019/20 U.S. wheat production increased to 53.3 million metric tons (MMT), up 4 percent from last year due to significant improvements in yield despite lower planted area. While this is still 2 percent below the 5-year average of 54.2 MMT, the production volume coupled with significant carry-in stocks ensure that the U.S. wheat remains the most reliable supply for 2019/20. Here is a look at 2019/20 U.S. wheat production by class.

USDA’s Small Grains Summary indicates U.S. wheat yields offset a reduced planted area for 2019/20.

Hard Red Winter (HRW). Last fall, U.S. farmers decreased HRW planting in the U.S. Southern and Central Plans due to extremely wet conditions which delayed the soybean harvest and in turn HRW planting. A slight uptick in planted area in Montana and South Dakota partially offset reductions in other states. Total U.S. HRW planted area fell 2 percent year-over-year to 22.7 million acres (9.19 million hectares), 15 percent below the 5-year average of 26.6 million acres (10.8 million hectares). Cool temperatures and favorable moisture during the growing season boosted HRW yields substantially year-over-year in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. In Kansas, the largest HRW producing state, a higher average yield offset lower planted area and production increased 22 percent over 2018/19 levels to 338 million bushels (9.17 MMT). USDA estimates total 2019/20 HRW production increased 26 percent over last year to 834 million bushels (22.7 MMT).

Hard Red Spring (HRS). Cold soil temperatures and excessive moisture in certain areas delayed HRS planting across much of the Northern Plains. USDA says U.S. farmers planted 12.0 million acres (4.86 million hectares), 6% below last year but slightly higher than the 5-year average of 11.8 million acres (4.78 million hectares). A cool summer boosted HRS yields in Montana and South Dakota. Heavy, persistent rain has severely delayed the 2019 HRS harvest. According to USDA, as of September 30, U.S. spring wheat harvest is only 90 percent complete compared to the 5-year average of 99 percent. USDA estimates 2019 HRS production will total 558 million bushels (15.2 MMT), 5 percent lower than 2018, but 8 percent higher than the 5-year average of 518 million bushels (14.1 MMT).

Soft Red Winter (SRW). Last fall, U.S. farmers planted 5.54 million acres (2.24 million hectares) of SRW, down 6 percent from the year prior and 18 percent from the 5-year average of 6.7 million acres (2.71 million hectares) due to low wheat prices compared to soybeans and delayed planting. Excessive moisture continued through the growing season and slowed harvest progress in many places. USDA reported SRW production totaled 239 million bushels (6.50 MMT), down 16 percent from last year and 31 percent below the 5-year average of 348 million bushels (9.46 MMT).

White Wheat (Soft White, Club and Hard White). U.S. white wheat planted area fell 4 percent below 2018/19 levels to 3.95 million acres (1.60 million hectares). Mild growing conditions and good soil moisture in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) supported above-average winter and spring wheat yields. The average white winter wheat yield in Oregon increased 1.0 bu/acre (.067 MT/hectare) over last year to 68.0 bu/acre (4.57 MT/hectare) in 2019. Slightly lower planted area and above-average yields kept U.S. white wheat production stable year-over-year at 273 million bushels (7.43 MMT) and 8 percent higher than the 5-year average of 252 million bushels (6.87 MMT).

Durum. Anticipating less-than break even prices, farmers planted less durum area this year. In its Small Grains 2019 Summary, USDA estimated 1.34 million acres (542,000 hectares) were planted to durum, down 35 percent from 2018/19 and 32 percent below the 5-year average of 2.0 million acres (664,000 hectares). USDA estimated total 2019/20 U.S. durum production at 57.3 million bushels (1.57 MMT), down 26 percent from last year. Cool, wet weather boosted yields in the U.S. Northern plains. Both Montana and North Dakota durum yield potential reached a record high in 2019. The country’s average durum yield also reached a record high of 44.8 bu/acre (3.01 MT/hectare), up 13 percent from last year. However, as with HRS, a significant portion of the northern durum crop has not yet been harvested. Desert Durum® production fell 46 percent year-over year to 5.67 million bushels (154,000 MT) due to sharply lower planted area in both Arizona and California.

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Expanding Wheat Breeding Resources for Better End-Use Quality, Disease Resistance

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) reports that an international team of scientists has identified significant new chromosomal regions for wheat yield and disease resistance and created a freely-available collection of genetic information and markers for more than 40,000 wheat lines.

Reported recently in Nature Genetics, CIMMYT says the results will speed up global efforts to breed more productive and climate-resilient varieties of bread wheat, a critical crop for world food security that is under threat from rising temperatures, rapidly-evolving fungal pathogens, and more frequent droughts, according to Philomin Juliana, wheat scientist at CIMMYT and first author of the new study.

“This work directly connects the wheat genome reference map [published in 2018] with wheat lines and extensive field data from CIMMYT’s global wheat breeding network,” said Juliana. “That network in turn links to over 200 breeding programs and research centers worldwide and contributes to yield and other key traits in varieties sown on nearly half the world’s wheat lands.”

CIMMYT noted that the study found genomic selection could be particularly effective in breeding for wheat end-use quality and for resistance to stem rust disease, whose causal pathogen has been evolving and spreading in the form of highly-virulent new races.

Bread wheat improvement using genomic tools will be critical to accelerate genetic gains in the crop’s yield, disease resistance, and climate resilience. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

“Farmers and societies today face new challenges to feed rising and rapidly-urbanizing populations, and wheat epitomizes the issues,” said Ravi Singh, CIMMYT wheat breeder and corresponding author of the study. “Higher temperatures are holding back yields in major wheat-growing areas, extreme weather events are common, crop diseases are spreading and becoming more virulent, and soil and water are being depleted.”

Juliana said the study results help pave the way to apply genomic selection, an approach that has transformed dairy cow husbandry, for more efficient wheat breeding.

“Molecular markers are getting cheaper to use; meanwhile, it is very costly to do field testing and selection involving many thousands of wheat plants over successive generations,” Juliana said. “Genome-wide marker-based selection can help breeders to precisely identify good lines in early breeding generations and to test plantlets in greenhouses, thereby complementing and streamlining field testing.”

The new study also documents the effectiveness of the global public breeding efforts by CIMMYT and partners, showing that improved wheat varieties from this work have accumulated multiple gene variants that favor higher yields, according to Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s global wheat program.

“This international collaboration, which is the world’s largest publicly-funded wheat breeding program, benefits farmers worldwide and offers high-quality wheat lines that are released directly to farmers in countries, such as Afghanistan, that are unable to run a full-fledged wheat breeding program,” Braun explained.

The study results are expected to support future gene discovery, molecular breeding, and gene editing in wheat, Braun said.

USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics funded the study. Contributing to the research are teams engaged in wheat improvement at CIMMYT, and the lab of Jesse Poland, Associate Professor at Kansas State University and Director of the USAID Applied Wheat Genomics Innovation Lab.

Photo above: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Crop Bioprotection Research.

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Best Wishes to Utsunomiya-San on His Retirement

In February 2019, U.S. Wheat Associates  (USW) announced that Mr. Kazunori “Rick” Nakano was joining the organization as Associate Country Director in Tokyo. Rick will become Country Director on September 30, 2019, when our colleague and friend Mr. Wataru “Charlie” Utsinomiya begins a well-earned retirement.

In that announcement, USW President Vince Peterson said Charlie’s sage counsel has guided “our efforts in Japan properly and effectively through the intricate business culture that accompanies any problem or opportunity there. Charlie’s successful stewardship will leave U.S. wheat interests in a strong position at a very important time in Japan.”

Charlie joined USW in May 2007 after working in grain trading management with Marubeni, including as Chairman of Columbia Grain, Inc. He also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Marubeni’s invested rice mill subsidiary, General Manager of the company’s soy processing division and Assistant General Manager of its food division among other positions over his 30-year career with Marubeni.

Charlie recently told his USW colleagues that he is happy his retirement is starting right after President Trump and Prime Minister Abe announced the trade deal that will keep U.S. wheat on equal footing with imported Australian and Canadian wheat.

“There are still some doors not yet opened,” Charlie told us. And while challenges remain, he said “good days will return and you can overcome the difficulties, I am sure. I hope our paths will cross again somewhere.”

We certainly hope so, too, Charlie, and we wish you a long and happy retirement.

Please read more about the transition in the USW Tokyo office here.

Mr. Wataru “Charlie” Utsunomiya

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USW Video Team Records the Hope of Winter Wheat Seeding in Oklahoma

“Seeding is an exciting time – and it can be stressful, too, because you are anxious to get the seed in the ground,” said Okarche, Okla., wheat farmer Michael Peters. “There are a lot of decisions to be made and sometimes the weather makes you wonder if you made the right choices. But once you see the wheat starting to grow you think, well, there is hope that it will be a good crop.”

That is how Peters recently described his experience seeding hard red winter (HRW) wheat with a team from 502 Marketing, Manhattan, Kan., that is working with U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) to produce a video program focused on the people who contribute to the wholesome quality of U.S. wheat for dozens of different food products around the world. With previous visits to Kansas, Ohio, Washington state, and North Dakota, the show will be completed in 2020 and include additional farm families and information about the U.S. wheat supply system.

Preparing the seeding equipment includes carefully connecting hydraulic lines, a process being videotaped here as Fred Peters (left), Tyler Peters (center) and Michael Peters prepare to plant another hard red winter wheat crop in September 2019.

Peters Farms is a family-owned operation that was started when Michael Peters’ great-great grandfather homesteaded a piece of land in central Oklahoma in the 1880s. Today, Michael farms with his farther Fred Peters and his son Tyler. They grow HRW wheat and graze cattle on some of that crop over the late fall and winter. Linda Peters, Michael’s wife, is a teacher and church musician who remains an active participant in the farm operations.

Early seeded HRW wheat on Peters Farms provides the backdrop for an interview with Michael Peters about the steps his family farm takes to grow a high-quality crop.

Michael is a commissioner with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission (OWC) and represents OWC on the USW Board of Directors where he serves as Chair of the USW Wheat Quality Committee and is a member of the USW and National Association of Wheat Growers Joint International Trade Committee.

USW wants to thank OWC Executive Director Mike Schulte (shown on the left in the photo with Fred and Michael Peters above) and OWC Marketing and Communications Manager Chris Kirby for their help arranging this important part of the USW video production. All of us at USW are proud to represent Peters Farms and other farm families in overseas markets – and we thank the Peters family for giving their time and effort to share their story at one of their busiest, but most hopeful, times of the year.

Murals representing the historical changes in Oklahoma’s wheat industry greet visitors to the Oklahoma Wheat Commission’s office in Oklahoma City. The murals were donated by the family of Dr. Brett Carver, head wheat breeder at Oklahoma State University.

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Meet the USW Technical Experts: Tarik Gahi – ‘For a Piece of Bread, Son’

Name: Tarik Gahi

Title: Milling and Baking Technologist

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

Providing Service to: North Africa and the Middle East

2018 – Running a Bread test at Atlantic Flour Mills in Morocco using 50% SRW + 50% HRW flour.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Milling and Baking Technologist Tarik Gahi has spent his entire career working with millers from around the world. But the first person to really make his career a passion was his mother.

“The main element on the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table in Morocco is bread. Growing up, my role at home was to follow my Mom’s instructions while helping her turn the wheat into bread. We would weigh 100 kilograms of the wheat stored in the roof, which was carefully hand cleaned, water washed, and spread under the day sun for two days to dry out,” said Gahi. “Then I would take it to a traditional flour mill – meters from our house – and pass on the message that Mom sent with me: ‘Please make the flour coarser and separated from the bran.’ Because if you didn’t ask for it, the worker at the mill would produce whole wheat flour, and my Mom didn’t want the additional job of separating the bran. Without being aware of it, she was a miller.”

(L) Tarik with his Dad in 1985; (R) Tarik with his Mom in 1987

Gahi grew up in Beni Mellal, a small city in Morocco at the base of Taseemit Mountain and near the plains of Tadla, a region known for its olive, wheat, and orange production. He and his two sisters were raised by their father, a philosophy teacher and later a school director, and mother, a homemaker. Growing up, Gahi’s favorite subject was math, so he pursued and received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Ibn Sinaa School in Beni Mellal, Morocco. When deciding what to pursue next, Gahi turned to his uncle, who had previously been the president of the first wheat importing group after the Moroccan wheat market liberalization in the late 1990s. His uncle introduced him to the Moroccan Milling Training Institute (IFIM) and shared with him something he would never forget.

He said, “Tarik, if you ask any Moroccan in the street why he wakes up every morning and goes to work, his answer is always going to be “for a piece of bread, son.” This means that wheat, flour, and bread are in our blood, and any business related to these three may lose at times but never dies.”

Following his uncle’s advice, Gahi studied milling engineering for two and a half years at IFIM, where he was introduced to USW, seeing its logo displayed throughout the school and meeting USW Regional Technical Director Peter Lloyd. After graduation, the top five students from the class, including Tarik, were offered a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Al-Ghurair, one of the largest milling companies in the Middle East.

“At Al-Ghurair, I learned to be patient and never underestimate the people around you, no matter their position,” said Gahi.

After six years with Al-Ghurair, Gahi worked as a mill operation manager at Seaboard West Africa Limited in Sierra Leone for two years, which challenged his managerial skills and taught him the importance of building relationships with customers. Next, Gahi returned to his home country and served as a chief miller at a milling company in Casablanca for three years before finally joining USW in 2015.

2019 – Visiting Bakhresa Group in Tanzania for a trade servicing activity. Beside Tarik (far left) is Peter Muni, current Bakhresa group technical vice president and Gahi’s past colleague from their time together at Al Ghurair Group in UAE.

An Ambassador for U.S. Wheat

The first wheat Gahi ever milled was U.S. hard red winter (HRW) donated by USW through the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Quality Samples Program (QSP).

“That marked my professional life a lot. The USW logo was engraved in my mind from my time at IFIM,” said Gahi. “I learned the basics of milling in a school built by USW, and to come back and work with the man who helped train me (Peter Lloyd), was something special. To technically convince people to use a product (wheat) that is a beautiful story for me is a job I want to do for the rest of my life. My story is with U.S. wheat.”

As a Milling and Baking Technologist, Gahi is involved in the development, service, and expansion of technical service for U.S. wheat and wheat products. He conducts cake and cookie courses in USW’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, inviting major regional soft wheat flour users to share with them the quality of U.S. soft wheat and demonstrate its functionality as an ingredient.

2019 – Touring the Bakhresa Mill in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and answering one of the chief miller’s questions about flour extraction and bran.

The MENA region is a wide geographic area comprised of widely differing milling and baking industries. From bakers in large cookie processing companies in Egypt to large flour mills in the UAE, North and West Africa, Gahi is equally at home carrying the message of what benefits U.S. wheat can provide customers.

“My job is to represent U.S. wheat growers in our region, and USW provides the necessary tools and conditions to help me pass on the farmer message to existing and potential customers,” said Gahi.

Through QSP, the same program that Gahi encountered in his first milling training, he now trains other young millers in processing U.S. wheat and helps introduce bakers and biscuit manufacturers to the right flour ingredient for their products.

“Tarik has a really good basic grounding in flour milling technology, upon which he has added layers of technical experience both overseas and in Morocco,” said Lloyd. “He has worked in both large and small mills, both new and older plants, and has furthermore added layers of mill management, quality control, and baking expertise to his basket of skills.”

Tarik Gahi explains variations in a QSP sample during a training at IFIM in 2018.

“Tarik is doing a great job providing technical support,” said a research and development regional manager with a large snack food company in Morocco. “He brings positive and great values to the baking industry through his regular visits and always supports us when needed. We have benefited from his bakery seminars and biscuit trainings.”

Gahi also spends time meeting with bakers and millers across the MENA region to get updates on each country’s market and help troubleshoot their technical problems. These meetings give him the opportunity to build stronger relationships among U.S. wheat customers and helps identify new needs and possible customers in each market.

“Gahi brings a lot of clarification and precious advice to cereals professionals along the supply chain by emphasizing the advantages of U.S. wheat compared to other origins and helps them adapt their practices to extract the most value. And he does that all in three languages,” said a supply chain manager with a grain agency in Algeria. “It is a great honor to work and collaborate with Tarik. His value is characterized by a great education, a great dedication to his work, and a developed professional sense, which all make him an excellent ambassador for U.S. wheat.”

Family

As his mentor, Peter Lloyd has watched Gahi interact with customers and how his unique blend of skills as a “people person” and his ability to communicate in English, Arabic, and French has positively impacted many cultures and markets.

“A major part of the job is the ability to communicate effectively across a very wide range of people, from millionaire industry giants to cleaners in a mill – and here Tarik once again excels,” said Lloyd. “He has an innate ability to communicate with people in our region, putting all at ease and, most importantly – listening effectively. He is just a great guy to work with.”

A USW technical manager trip to the USDA-ARS Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory in Ohio in 2016. Pictured (L to R) Peter Lloyd, USW; Marcelo Mitre, USW; Byung-Kee Baik, USDA-ARS; Brad Moffitt, Ohio Corn & Wheat; and Tarik Gahi, USW.

Lloyd is very proud that his student, colleague, and understudy has become a part of the legacy Lloyd will eventually leave behind.

“As the person who has helped introduce Tarik to U.S. Wheat Associates and perhaps worked more closely with him than anyone – I can say that the future of technical support into the MENA region and across Africa is in excellent hands with Tarik.”

For Gahi, who enjoys playing chess and cycling in his free time (though he says he is tired of being beaten every time he plays chess), family is his most important interest. He is a husband and a father of two small children, but family will always be also woven into his passion for his career.

Tarik and his son.

“Every time I think about my career history, I think about my Mom, Uncle, U.S. Wheat Associates, and Peter Lloyd. If I were asked to give U.S. Wheat Associates a new name, I would simply add the word “family” – U.S. Wheat Associates Family,” said Gahi. “Since I joined USW, I have felt like a member of a family. People care, people respect each other, and people do what it takes to make the family happy.”

By Amanda J. Spoo, USW Director of Communications

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth 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: Tarik Gahi (far left) with USW colleagues Mark Fowler, Ian Flagg and Peter Lloyd at the IAOM MEENA meeting in 2017.

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
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
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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