The U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) board of directors seated officers for 2023/24 at their annual meeting July 12, 2023, in Minneapolis, Minn. USW is the export market development organization for the U.S. wheat industry. Michael Peters, Okarche, Okla., accepted the USW Chairman’s gavel from 2022/23 Chair Rhonda Larson, East Grand Forks, Minn. Clark Hamilton, Ririe, Idaho, now serves as Vice Chair, and Jim Pellman, McClusky, N.D., starts his term as Secretary-Treasurer. This slate of officers was elected in February 2023.

In a large-scale study, now published in npj Science of Food and conducted by the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart and the University Medical Center Mainz, researchers identified a total of 2,896 different proteins in 150 flour samples from the five types of wheat—einkorn, emmer, spelt, and durum and common wheat. In addition to the place of cultivation, the respective variety plays a major role. That information could be put to good use. Proteins, whose occurrence depends primarily on the variety, could be influenced by targeted breeding.

Add wheat to the extensive list of commodities markets dominated by Chinese buyers. Already the world’s top importer of corn and soybeans, the nation is now poised to overtake Egypt and Turkey as the biggest buyer of wheat in the year through June, Chinese and US official data show. Purchases exceeded 12 million tons in the first 11 months of the marketing year, which runs through June. More than half of those cargoes were supplied by Australia.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) joined the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and other agricultural organizations at a June 22 press conference introducing the “American Farmers Feed the World Act of 2023,” a bipartisan effort to “keep food in America’s international food aid programs.” U.S. Representatives Tracey Mann (KS), John Garamendi (CA), Rick Crawford (AR), and Jimmy Panetta (CA) introduced the legislation, which aims to restore the original intent of the Food for Peace program without spending additional Farm Bill resources, all while safeguarding the interests of U.S. farmers.

The US Department of Agriculture in its June World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report marginally raised from May its forecasts for domestic wheat, corn and soybean supplies for 2023-24. For wheat, the only one of the three major US crops in the 2023-24 marketing year (since June 1), a 6-million-bushel increase in 2023 production forecast at 1.136 billion bushels was carried through to the same increase for carryover on June 1, 2024, forecast at 562 million bushels. There were no changes from May to forecast 2023-24 wheat domestic use or exports. The average price of wheat paid to farmers in 2023-24 was forecast at $7.40 per bushel, down 30¢ from May and down $1.15, or 13%, from 2022-23.

Italian farmers and consumers are demanding that the government limit foreign durum wheat imports to keep domestic producers in business and ensure greater food security. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has promised to promote Italian agriculture and domestically grown produce, but over 50,000 people signed a petition organized by the association of Italian farmers CIA, saying that her government has not matched words with action yet.

Final export commitment data for marketing year (MY) 2022/23 that ended May 31 is now available, providing an overview of the year’s export and demand trends. In this article, we will look back on the MY 2022/23 demand trends and current MY 2023/24 data to provide context for the year to come as the world wheat market conditions continue to recover from the year’s volatility. Since the start of 2022/23, wheat prices and freight decreased, and currency markets stabilized following the steep price shock of Mr. Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.