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.