12/28/05 U.S. Wheat president on SWW

Farm and Ranch December 28, 2005 The majority of wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest is soft white wheat and most of it is exported. And exports of soft white wheat are running something like 22% behind last year at this time. The depressed price of soft white reflects that. Alan Tracy is president of U.S. Wheat Associates, the wheat organization responsible for developing export markets and which in part is funded by grower dollars. In an interview at the recent Pacific Northwest Grains Conference Tracy talked about U.S. Wheat's work on soft white. He says a problem soft white wheat has had is that the customer base has been limited. About seven countries take most of it. Tracy: "One of the things that we have been trying do to in U.S. Wheat is expand that base. We have made some real good progress lately in Latin America, both in South America and in Mexico. And I think is going to start taking hold." Tracy says they are also working with private millers in China. Tracy: "Historically they bought a lot of soft red winter wheat out of the Gulf. And especially at today's shipping prices it just makes sense for them to buy out of here." Reduced imports by China and Pakistan have hurt soft white this year. And then there is Egypt usually a major buyer of U.S. wheat, especially soft white but where cheap Black Sea grain has displaced American wheat. Tracy: "That may be a fairly long term loss. That is all the more reason why it is important we are developing other markets for white wheat in other parts of the world." U.S. Wheat Associates' Alan Tracy. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.