Vietnam Wheat Purchase Opens New Market

Vietnam has made its first U.S. wheat purchase in 22 years.

Though the Binh Dong Flour Mill is only buying 10,000 metric tons of red wheat, this deal could open the doors for Washington and Oregon farmers to sell their product to areas that until recently have been closed to trade.

“It represents an opening of world markets previously off limits to U.S. producers and grain shippers,” said John Schlueter, executive vice president of the Pacific Northwest Grain and Feed Association in Portland. “Very literally, it’s the foot in the door for what we hope will be expanded future business.”

Though this first shipment of wheat isn’t coming from the Northwest, it offers opportunity to local farmers. Ten thousand metric tons to Vietnam today could in a few years grow to a million metric tons, Schlueter said. “That’s the carrot that’s being dangled out there for Northwest farmers.”

While their primary grain is rice, “the Vietnamese have always enjoyed Western wheat-based products like baguettes and French-type bread as well as pastry and cakes,” Schlueter said. “That’s the result of the French colonial influence.”

Northwest wheat, usually the soft white variety, can be used to make the finer breads and pastries that the Vietnamese enjoy.

The United States lifted its 19-year embargo with Vietnam in 1994, but only lately has the Southeast Asian country considered buying wheat from this country. For the past three years, the export marketing group U.S. Wheat Associates visited the country and laid the groundwork for selling wheat there, said Tom Mick, executive director of the Washington Wheat Commission.

Once the Vietnamese officials and mills determine that U.S. wheat meets their quality standards, they’ll come back for more, Mick said. “And when they do come back, they’ll be buying from Northwest ports. It’s tailor made for us.”

The first shipments to Vietnam will be delivered in October.

, DataTimes