USW Wheat Letter – August 22, 2019

USDA Plan to Ease Biotech Regulations Splits Industry
Originally published August 13, 2019
By Philip Brasher, Executive Editor, Agri-Pulse; Excerpted with Permission Crop developers say USDA’s effort to streamline its regulation of biotech crops will still slow the commercialization of many gene-edited products, but groups representing grain traders, food processors and restaurant chains are slamming the department’s proposal, claiming it could lead to trade disruptions and undermine consumer confidence. Read the full article here.

USW Takes its Video Team to Washington’s Iconic Palouse Region
Originally published August 14, 2019 Sculpted by the cataclysmic Missoula floods millions of years ago at the end of the last ice age, the rolling, fertile hills of the Palouse region in the Pacific Northwest is one of the most distinct agricultural landscapes in the United States. In Washington’s Whitman County—the largest U.S. wheat producing county—Gary Bailey farms both winter and spring wheat. Read the full article here.

The U.S. Wheat Industry’s Partnership with Japan Adds Perspective to Current Trade Negotiations
Originally published August 21, 2019 There is renewed hope this week that the United States and Japan are making good progress toward a trade agreement that we hope will ensure U.S. wheat can continue competing with Canadian and Australian wheat based on quality, variety and value. Currently, under the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Japan’s effective tariffs on Canadian and Australian wheat imports are discounted and will continue being discounted to the tariff on U.S. wheat imports. U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) has every confidence that our agricultural trade negotiators working with Japan fully understand the need to mitigate the risk to U.S. wheat farmers in an agreement. We thank them for their efforts. Read the full article here.

Unfavorable Weather Delays U.S. Spring Wheat Harvest
Originally published August 21, 2019
By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst Though early April is the ideal planting window for U. S. hard red spring (HRS) wheat, saturated fields and cold soil temperatures kept many farmers out of their fields until late May or early June this year. The same precipitation and cool temperatures that delayed planting boosted early HRS development through mid-June and helped reduce concerns about late planting from central Montana to western Minnesota. Now, scattered precipitation and high humidity across the Northern Plains are preventing many farmers from entering their fields to begin the spring wheat harvest. Read the full article here.