05/02/06 Soft white wheat and C. America

Farm and Ranch May 2, 2006 Representatives of the Washington Wheat Commission found some opportunities for Pacific Northwest soft white wheat in Central America during a trade mission to the region this winter. Commission Chairman Randy Suess was on the trip that made stops in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Suess: "And we are looking at a great opportunity for soft white wheat. When hurricane Katrina and Rita hit they were traditionally buying soft red winter out of the Gulf side and when all those ports closed up they had a need for some wheat and they started looking to the Pacific Northwest to buy our soft white. Now El Salvador and Guatemala had been buying some soft white but Costa Rica had not. So this was chance for us to go down there and visit with them and tell them what advantages we had." Advantages like lower dockage and moisture and at the time of the visit a lower price. Suess: "The soft red winter that was coming out of the Gulf was all has to go through the Panama Canal because all their port facilities are located on the Pacific side and every time a ship goes through the Panama Canal it costs $80,000 in transportation costs to get it through there. So we have some pretty big advantages and we are wanting them to take a look at our soft w white for cookies, crackers and pancakes and hopefully that we'll be able to open up a bit of a market for us. It is not a huge market in Central America but it would be a big advantage for us and give us another opportunity." One disadvantage for the PNW is that the Central American ports can only handle smaller vessels which aren't that available off the west Coast. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network