Sub-Saharan Africa trade team visits Kansas

A group of representatives from food companies and flour mills around Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa and Nigeria) was in Kansas June 15-19, 2019, to meet with wheat producers, discuss the current quality aspects of U.S. wheat and to learn about new wheat varieties. The trade team was organized by U.S. Wheat Associates, the industry’s market development organization, and while in the state they were guests of the Kansas Wheat Commission. While the trade team was stateside they were able to meet with various grain traders and grain/wheat export companies and hear updates on the global grain trade, global supply and demand and estimates on price movements.

Highlights from their time in Kansas included meeting with Scoular Grain and Skyland Grain, receiving a crop quality update from Brad Seabourn and a tour of the Center for Grain and Animal Health Research in Manhattan. This USDA facility provides milling, dough and baking tests of early and advanced generation lines and varieties being developed by K-State's two wheat breeding teams.

The team members also visited the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, learned more about Kansas wheat production, toured the state of the art facility and met with our neighbor across the parking lot, the IGP Institute. The trade team toured IGP’s facilities and visited the full-scale pilot flour and feed mills, met with faculty and staff and learned about the various educational programs offered by IGP.

Their scheduled visit to view wheat harvest was halted due to storms.

Team members included representatives from Seaboard, Honeywell Flour Mills, Dufil Flour Mills, Flour Mills of Nigeria and RCL Foods in South Africa.

The companies represented on the trade team mark some of the largest wheat purchasers in the region.

Since the 1990s, overall wheat imports in Nigeria have steadily increased as a result of increased consumption of bread (70% of flour use), pasta (15%), noodles (15%) and other products. It used to be that for many Nigerians, the only meal of the day was a loaf of bread and a Coke; today they also have the choice of pasta and noodles, where noodles are gaining ground as the favorite. Per capita wheat consumption has nearly quadrupled since 1995.

Wheat consumption in South Africa is a growing market, the highest in the Sub-Saharan region. Approximately 90% of wheat consumption is for bread, with the remaining 10% for buns, rolls, confectionary products, pasta and biscuits. The growth of the fast food sector has also placed demands on the baking industry for quality buns, rolls, specialty breads and confectionery products. For example, McDonald's, Subway and other specialty producers like Rich's and Pillsbury have established plants in the Johannesburg area and their products are shipped to outlets around the country through an organized cold chain.

Prior to coming to Kansas, the team members also traveled to Washington, D.C. and North Dakota. In D.C., they met with USDA to discuss export guarantee financing and FGIS inspection procedures, toured Mennel Milling and Uptown Bakers.  In North Dakota, they toured Northern Crops Institute and the North Dakota State University Wheat Quality Labs and Wheat Breeding Programs, toured a farm, and visited a grain elevator and commodity trading room. There, they were hosted by the North Dakota Wheat Commission.

USW's mission is to develop, maintain, and expand international markets to enhance wheat’s profitability for U.S. wheat producers and its value for their customers in more than 100 countries. Its activities are made possible through producer checkoff dollars managed by 17 state wheat commissions and cost-share funding provided by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. For more information, visit their website at www.uswheat.org.