Four bulk carriers loaded with cargoes of U.S. wheat have landed in the port of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific Coast this summer, marking the first commercial sales directly tied to a successful monetization project under the Food for Progress program supported by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW).
“The commercial sales of U.S. wheat to Colombia exemplify the goals of the Food for Progress program,” said Miguel Galdos, USW regional director for South America. “Monetization provided an opportunity for USW to demonstrate the quality and versatility of U.S. wheat classes, and the resulting purchases are a testament to the trust and relationships we have built with the Colombian milling industry.”
Competing Against Canada for Colombian Market Share
Colombia has the second-largest population in South America. The country’s flour milling industry is dependent on imported wheat and is separated into regional clusters by port locations on either the Atlantic or the Pacific coasts. Wheat arriving in Buenaventura on the Pacific coast is trucked to flour mills in Cali or Bogota to serve the country’s largest regional wheat milling baking industry.
The Colombian market is highly competitive, with duty-free imports available from the United States, Canada, Mercosur and the European Union. This duty-free access and the proximity of U.S. ports on the West Coast are advantages for U.S. wheat, but there has been a traditional preference for Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat.
To counter this historical preference, USW’s South American regional team has used funding from the USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP), Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) and Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP) to promote the benefits of U.S. wheat classes to western Colombian millers and commercial wheat food companies.
Food for Progress Program Sows Seeds for Future Sales
An opportunity to demonstrate these advantages came after Partners of America (Partners) was awarded a Food for Progress Merit Award in 2024, a follow-up to a similarly successful project in 2020. Under the Food for Progress program, the U.S. government provides commodities like wheat that can be sold to local processors or traders in a recipient country like Colombia. The proceeds from those sales can then be used for developmental projects, like the one Partners undertook to support Colombian cacao growers based on the monetization of U.S. hard red winter (HRW) and hard red spring (HRS) wheat.
USW worked with Partners to write appropriate specifications for Colombian buyers, having conducted a logistics and combined cargoes workshop for regional South American wheat purchasing managers the prior year.
The result was a vessel – LIBERTY GRACE – that departed the Gulf on March 15, 2025, loaded with the donation shipment of 20,000 metric tons (nearly 735,000 bushels) of U.S. HRW wheat and 13,400 MT (492,000 bushels) of U.S. HRS wheat. When the wheat cargoes arrived in Buenaventura, the Colombian companies that purchased the donated wheat were fully prepared to incorporate U.S. wheat into their bread and pasta flour blends, thanks to USW’s technical assistance.
Shifting From Aid to Trade
Subsequently, demand from Colombian millers has continued to increase. Since the project concluded, four additional vessels have carried cargoes of U.S. wheat to Buenaventura from both the PNW and the Gulf. Each of the shipments can be traced back to the success of the monetization project.
In all, these buyers – led by the largest purchaser of U.S. wheat from the donation vessel – have purchased 53,714 MT (1.97 million bushels) of U.S. wheat. The bulk of the purchases was U.S. HRW wheat (41,614 MT or nearly 1.53 million bushels), but the purchase of 12,100 MT (nearly 445,000 bushels) of U.S. HRS is also significant in this market dominated by CWRS wheat.
Two of these vessels that originated in the PNW were “grocery boats,” a term the grain trade uses to describe a vessel that can carry multiple commodities. In this case, the ships unloaded their U.S. HRW wheat cargoes in Buenaventura before moving on to deliver a secondary cargo of U.S. soft white (SW) wheat to ports in Ecuador.
USW has promoted these types of shipments to South American buyers as they allow importers from nearby countries to spread out the cost of ocean freight. Five years ago, these types of combined cargoes were virtually unheard of in South America, another testament to USW’s strategic work to connect buyers with U.S. wheat traders and exporters to maximize their purchasing options.
“The commercial sales of U.S. wheat to Colombia, following a successful monetization project, are a clear demonstration of the effectiveness of the Food for Progress program and USW’s commitment to expanding market access for U.S. wheat farmers,” Galdos said, noting that USW is tracking additional commercial sales of U.S. wheat expected to land in Colombian ports this fall. “USW will continue to build on these wins by providing additional trade and technical assistance to further cement trust with Colombian millers and create additional opportunities for importing U.S. wheat.”
article From US Wheat Associates:
