The Colorado Wheat Commission hosted a team of flour milling managers from Taiwan on a visit to Colorado to learn about the  production and quality of the state's wheat.

The trade team was briefed on Colorado production and quality by Plains Grains, Inc., Executive Director Mark Hodges, and by Colorado State University wheat breeder Scott Haley.

The group toured the CSU wheat breeding program at the Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center.

They also stopped at ConAgra Flour Milling Company and the Commerce City Grain unit train loading facility.

A Taiwan flour miller tour in Colorado included, from left, Ronald L. J. Lu, Con Agra Mills Plan Manager Matt Huelsman, Hsin-Hong Kuo, Shin-Yao Lin, Ching-Yang Lai and Hsin-Ming Peng.

They visited the Progressive Farms operation near Byers to see how hard red and hard white winter wheat from the 2012 harvest was handled, and stopped at Cargill AgHorizons to see another unit train loading process.

"Flour millers in Taiwan prefer U.S. wheat and buy an average of 80% of their total imports from American farmers," says U.S. Wheat Associates Country Director Ronald Lu, who  traveled with the team.

"It is still very important for these managers to see for themselves the effort that farmers, wheat breeders and grain handlers take to produce a reliable supply of high-quality wheat for the Taiwan market."

Taiwan was the seventh largest export buyer of U.S. wheat with imports of nearly 888 million metric tons in the 2011-12 marketing year. The nation was the tenth largest export buyer of U.S. hard red winter wheat with imports of 243 metric tons.

The trade team consisted of representatives of Top Food Industry Corp., Hong Ming Enterprise Co. Flour Mill, Tai-I Flour Mill, and Tung Yang Flour Mill.

Taiwan's interest in U.S. wheat is underscored with several visits to inspect this nation's crops. Last year, a delegation visited Montana field and handing facilities as part of an agricultural goodwill mission.

At that time, the Taiwan delegation signed a letter of intent to purchase 62 million bushels of wheat from the U.S. over the next two years.

Taiwan also operates a Taiwan Flour Mill Association in pursuit of improving connections with suppliers in the U .S. and other wheat sourcing nations.