This week, the U.S. Grains Council hosted a Japanese barley team composed of compound feed manufacturers, international traders, millers and large food companies throughout the U.S. barley belt. The team traveled through parts of Idaho, Washington, Montana and finished up in North Dakota. Collectively, those four states seeded more than 75 percent of the barley acres in 2013.

The purpose of this program is threefold.

• First, it provided a hands-on assessment of the U.S. barley crop throughout different stages of maturity, allowing the team to accurately evaluate their barley positions back in Japan.
• Secondly, it educated the team on different varieties and breeding programs in the pipeline.
• Finally, it exposed them to different marketing and contracting strategies used by other countries and companies.

The Japanese expressed interest to learn more about forward contracting — a practice that already has a proven track record of success with Canada and beer makers.

“The advantage of forward contracting (with a producer) is you have a direct pipeline to your source,” said Dave Tweet, of Tweet Consulting. “Many buyers have found success by partnering with an existing company that understands the contracting process.”

Importers, however, need to be made aware of the process and planning that goes into marketing a crop, especially barley. Tweet commented that most producers are already locking in their planting intentions and marketing contracts beginning in August.

“Most farmers are not able to risk growing barley without a contract,” added Kim Falcon, executive director for the Montana Wheat & Barley Commission.

Kevin Roepke, USGC manager of global trade, noted, “It was a tremendous opportunity for Japanese barley buyers to not only understand some of the non-traditional marketing methods that exist for barley contracts, but to also gain firsthand experience of a wide array of U.S. crops. The Council brought not only some of the world’s largest barley traders, but also some of the world’s largest wheat traders. It was a great synergy of the global agriculture market.”