Visiting executives praise American commitment to trade

By RICHARD SMITH

For the Capital Press

TOKYO -- A recent tour of the U.S. wheat industry made a big impression on five Japanese milling executives, the Japan Flour Millers Association executive director says.

Japanese users have for many years relied on the high quality and stable supply of U.S. wheat, said Masaaki Kadota, who accompanied the executives.

"We ascertained this again on our U.S. visit," Kadota said. "We have also been able to assure the U.S. will continue to satisfy Japan's requirements for stable wheat supplies."

To gain firsthand knowledge of winter wheat crop conditions as well as issues affecting overall wheat supply and demand, the representatives traveled across the U.S. from Washington, D.C., to Boise, Idaho, and Portland.

During their visit, the team held discussions with representatives from nearly every sector of the U.S. wheat industry on subjects such as increasing investment in wheat research, soft white wheat supply and rising production costs.

The tour was sponsored by U.S. Wheat Associates, which organized it with the Idaho Wheat Commission, Oregon Wheat Commission, Washington Grain Commission, Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, North American Millers' Association and the Wheat Marketing Center.

Kenji Takihara, operations group manager in the operations and planning division of Tokyo-based Nisshin Seifun, said Japanese millers use 6 million tons of wheat a year. Nisshin Seifun is the largest miller in Japan, with 10 plants with a daily milling capacity of 8,100 tons.

Japanese wheat meets only 10 percent of the nation's needs. U.S. wheat accounts for 60 percent of the total import market, Takihara said. Wheat also comes from Australia and Canada.

"When we visited Idaho, we could feel farmers were vigorously devoting themselves to wheat production," he said.

Tsunetaka Honda, milling company president and senior managing director of Tokyo-based Nippon Flour Mills, the second-largest Japanese miller, said he was impressed the U.S. did not put any importing country at a disadvantage by setting up tariff walls or export bans, as some other wheat-exporting countries have done.

Founded in 1896, NFM's total daily milling capacity runs at 6,000 tons. Honda said the U.S. industry supports Japan by providing new crop information in a timely manner and passes on information on Japan's quality and safety requirements to U.S. farmers.

"The U.S. wheat industry has provided information on supply ability as occasion demands, such as early warning of the closure of the Columbia River," Honda said.

Despite a worldwide wheat shortage due to abnormal weather conditions, the U.S. has been able to provide stable supplies, Honda said.

"We would like U.S. Wheat Associates to continue providing us with information on exports," Honda said.

Other participants in the tour were Mari Miyake, president of Chita, Aichi Prefecture-based Central Flour Milling; Ichiro Takeuchi, president of Naha, Okinawa Prefecture-based Okinawa Flour Milling; Tetsu Torigoe, president of Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture-based The Torigoe; and U.S. Wheat Associates Japan country representative Wataru Utsunomiya.