Canada eyes Indonesian wheat market

Canada eyes Indonesian wheat market

WINNIPEG, Canada (Reuter): Canadian Wheat Board commissioner Gordon Machej said on Thursday he will join the Canadian Prime Minister's trade mission to Indonesia and other South East Asian countries in a bid to expand his agency's market share in the region.

"Asia has been a very good market area for us and we see continued growth in that market area and we have been paying appropriate attention to all of the markets in that Asia-Pacific region," Machej told Reuters.

He said he will join Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's trade mission in Indonesia Jan 17. The CWB has sold 700,000 tons of wheat per year there in recent years.

"Indonesia has been an important customer for Canadian wheat, it's an expanding market so it's a very important customer from our perspective," Machej said.

"We've been working in that market since the 1970s and we've been putting about 700,000 tons of wheat in there a year and we're certainly hopeful of increasing that volume in the years ahead," he added.

Machej said he would "likely" meet with other CWB clients in Malaysia and Singapore.