MAP-Funded Technical Service Generates New U.S. Wheat Sales to Peru

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) invested Market Access Program (MAP) funds to help an integrated milling and wheat food production company in Peru prepare to import U.S. soft white (SW) for the first time in more than 10 years.

Following several virtual trade service meetings in early 2021, Molitalia decided to purchase SW to produce flour for its branded cookie and cracker product lines. Before the shipment arrived, Molitalia asked USW to review their soft wheat milling system. An important part of that system is tempering, or adding water to wheat before it is milled to extract the most flour possible. It is a key source of efficiency in a mill.

U.S. SW has less moisture than wheat from competing origins. It is important to milling companies to take advantage of this factor and optimize tempering systems to demonstrate the value of low-moisture, U.S. SW wheat grist.

USW’s milling expert found that the tempering system was not supplying the amount of water needed to efficiently mill SW wheat.

Molitalia took USW’s recommendation to add a second tempering stage and was able to properly mill its purchase of 5,500 metric tons of SW in 2021/22, with a value of $1.5 million. This was the company’s first purchase of U.S. SW since 2010 and returned an estimated $12.3 million to wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest.