Grainnet

Washington, DC -- U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) is pleased to announce that Wataru "Charlie" Utsunomiya will join the organization by June 1 as country director in Japan, a position filled with distinction by the late Takeo Suzuki.

Utsunomiya started his career as a grain trader with Japan's Marubeni Corporation and has held various management positions with the company for 30 years.

Utsunomiya is currently chairman of Columbia Grain, Portland, OR.

He also served as president and CEO of Rice Milling Company, a Marubeni subsidiary, general manager of Marubeni's oilseeds, fats, and oil department and assistant general manager of its foodstuffs division among other positions.

He has commodity export experience in the Asian, South American, African, and the Middle Eastern markets and has served four assignments in the United States over 13 years.

"Mr. Utsunomiya's experience, knowledge, and management skills are ideally matched to the requirements of our Tokyo office," says Vince Peterson, USW vice president, overseas operations.

"Japan has been a loyal and important customer, since U.S. wheat producers first helped introduce bread to school lunch programs and opened a Tokyo office 51 years ago. We are thrilled that we can honor this important relationship by having Mr. Utsunomiya represent U.S. wheat producers and continue to provide market development services to all sectors and entities in the Japanese wheat food industry."

Every year, with one recent exception, Japan imports more wheat from the United States than any other country.

In marketing year 2005-06, Japan purchased more than 3 million metric tons of U.S. wheat, representing more than 10% of all U.S. wheat exports and more than 5% of all the wheat grown in this country.

Hard red spring wheat, grown mainly in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, and South Dakota, makes up nearly half of these imports.

The rest is Pacific Northwest-origin western white and hard red winter wheat from the northern and central Plains.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• U.S. Wheat Associates

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