Wheat And Barley Talks Overseas

A delegation from western Canada has returned from a two week trip promoting Canadian feed barley and wheat to customers in Japan and Korea.

The group included representatives from the Alberta Barley Commission, the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi), Alberta and Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Both Japan and Korea import the majority of the grain they use for feed, explains Cigi's Rex Newkirk.

"The demand is huge. In Japan, they produce 24.7 million tonnes of feed and a large portion of that is imported. Korea is a similar sized market," he says.

Much of that feedgrain demand is met by US corn and soybeans.

"They pretty much stick to corn and soybeans, so we with things happening in the world market and the US drought, it's a good time to look at increasing the amount of alternative products," says Newkirk. "We were able to show technical information on how they can use greater amounts of barley and feed wheat, and how Canada's a good supplier of that material."

He says most of the customers were unaware of how much barley or wheat could be used in a ration.

"They have been increasing the amount they're using, but they've been hesitant to increase it too dramatically. We were able to show them data about people in Canada using no corn, strictly barley in their diets, and that was a surprise to them," says Newkirk.