Some “outside the cracker box” thinking by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) staff in South America resulted in a major customer expanding its use of both U.S. soft red winter (SRW) and U.S. soft white (SW) wheat for production of popular snack foods.
Two separate activities led to the purchasing decisions. Both are examples of technical support at its best.
According to Miguel Galdos, USW regional director for South America, a major cookie and cracker maker had been milling SRW for many of its products. Recognizing potential growth and opportunities created by the company’s product line, USW staff offered technical service designed to maximize the performance of SRW by blending SW sourced from the Pacific Northwest.
Leveraging Flour Science to Promote U.S. Soft Wheats
With funding from the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP), USW arranged to send the company’s operations manager to attend a three-week Cookie and Cracker Technology Course at the UFM Baking School in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2024.
“This was the first time a customer from outside of Asia participated in the course,” Galdos noted. “In addition to the intensive instruction on ingredients, formulas and processing, the course covered how to use solvent retention capacity (SRC) for soft wheat flour evaluation to identify direct SRW and SW flour performance advantages.”
As a service to international millers and bakers, USW provides a service to customers in applying SRC analysis to better predict the true performance characteristics of flour for a wide range of end products, including cookies, crackers and cakes.
More specifically, SRC examines the glutenin, gliadin and pentosan characteristics of the flour, and the level of starch damage in the flour. These values describe the flour’s ability to absorb water during the mixing process and its ability to release that water during the baking process. SRC testing directly benefits the use of U.S. soft wheat classes, as it is the only analysis that reveals the difference between flours with and without added additives. For bakers, this testing ensures they are using the best possible flour for their products.
Turning Knowledge into Investment
Following the course, and upon the recommendation of the operation manager, the company invested in an SRC system to ensure its mill is delivering more precise flour blends to improve product quality.
USW went a step farther in May 2025, inviting the same staff member to participate in a Soft Wheat Workshop at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon. Shortly after that workshop, the company imported 500 metric tons (MT) (about 18,400 bushels) of SW.
“Based on its overall experience, the company has established an agreement with its trader to make regular purchases of SW as a complement to its annual purchases of SRW,” Galdos reported.
As of August 14, 2025, Colombia is third largest buyer of SRW thus far in the 2025/2026 marketing year with imports of 144,000 MT (5.29 million bushels), up 50% from this time the prior year. Last marketing year, combined SRW and SW sales to Colombia hit 403,000 MT (14.8 million bushels), benefitting farmers in Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, Oregon and other states.