Q&A: Technical Assistance Demonstrates Value of U.S. Wheat to South American Customers
Getting deep into the technical details of how and why U.S. wheat classes are valuable to South American millers and bakers is one of the favorite parts of working for U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) for Regional Director Miguel Galdos. Originally trained as an agricultural engineer, he now leads technical and trade promotional efforts across the six countries in the South American region – Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Galdos joined U.S. producers in November at the 2025 Joint USW/NAWG Fall Board Meeting in Austin, Texas. Following his presentation to the USW Board of Directors, he shared more about his career path and how his focus on technical assistance is helping expand markets for U.S. wheat exports.
Tell me about your educational background and your career path.
I graduated as an agricultural engineer from Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile. After meeting Alvaro de la Fuente, then USW regional director, I was invited to a crop quality presentation at the U.S. Embassy and soon joined USW in Santiago as a marketing specialist. Three years later, I became assistant regional director.
In 2008, I left USW and started working for a company called Engrain LLC as vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean. Engrain is a U.S.-based company involved in the production and commercialization of enzyme technology and premixes for the milling and baking industry. At Engrain, I learned to develop value propositions for customers. I also realized the importance of the technical segment inside the different milling companies in the region, something that we have capitalized on today with our users in South America.
Tell me more about your focus on technical assistance in South America.
USW has had an excellent relationship with wheat buyers and mill owners in the region. But after my work with Engrain, I realized the equal importance of working with the technical staff at these companies.
I returned to USW in 2018 after Alvaro retired as the regional director to lead USW’s efforts in South America. Before I started working with USW again, one of my requests was to include a technical specialist on our staff. Andres Saturno arrived with me on my first day back as the technical manager for our region, and he has been a tremendous asset to our mission.
Today, we continue to work with wheat importers and mill owners, but we also work with more technical areas of regional companies, including research and development, production, management and more.
As part of serving technical staff, the USW office helped establish a lab for education and training in Santiago. How did that lab come to be, and how does it help U.S. wheat farmers compete against other wheat suppliers like Canada?
When I arrived back at USW, I was talking with Mark Fowler, who was then vice president of global technical services, about the importance of training technical staff in the region. With that conversation, the idea was born to develop a laboratory in the South American region.
Today, we have a lab that is six years old, located at Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile. We have conducted several programs and trained technical staff from the six countries we cover in South America. We also use this laboratory to develop value propositions for our customers across the region.
The most important part of the lab is that we can mill small amounts of wheat and produce flour. We can develop blends. We can compare quality. We can analyze the different qualities of our competitors’ wheats and develop a better proposal for our customers in the milling industry. For us, it is very important work that demonstrates the quality and consistency of U.S. wheat – two factors that are very important for the buyers in our region. We are the most reliable choice in the market.
How important are personal relationships to doing business in South America?
Relationships in South America are very important – the relationships you have with people. All business exchanges are based on confidence, and in order to develop confidence, first you have to develop the relationship. USW has excellent relationships with all of the region’s milling and baking industries.
We also value the opportunity to travel to the United States with wheat importers or processors to build and maintain relationships with our producers through visits to wheat farms and meetings with farmers. That has been, and will continue to be, an important key to growing the market in South America.
We will continue doing our best in South America to position U.S. wheat as the best source of wheat for buyers in the region. And we value all the efforts done by our farmers in the United States to continue producing good quality and consistent wheat – something that is very important for all our customers across South America.
Last question – what is your favorite food made with U.S. wheat in your region?
My favorite wheat-based food is bread. So, nothing better for me than to eat a very nice ciabatta produced with a blend of U.S. hard red winter (HRW) and U.S. hard red spring (HRS) wheat. And ciabatta is growing in popularity across South America, too!
