July 8, 2013

Japan will import 750 tonnes of wheat which is not US western white variety for the first time in over half a century after a suspension on such shipments.

Tokyo has stopped imports of western white, a mixture of soft white and club white wheat developed particularly for Japan, in late-May after the US announced it had found a genetically modified version of the wheat growing in Oregon.

Japan will buy a total 750 tonnes of soft-red winter grain and club wheat from the US, the farm ministry said in a release.

The agency allowed for as much as 2,000 tonnes of alternative grades to be purchased during the dealing period that ended earlier on June 28, which is used from time to time to import wheat grades outside of the ministry's mostly weekly tenders for the five main wheat grades Japan uses.

The world's sixth-biggest wheat importer has relied solely on western white to make cakes and many other confectionaries since 1960 and imports around 800,000 tonnes of the grade annually.

South Korean millers confirmed they would lift their halt on US white wheat imports, without giving a specific timeframe. Sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that shipments would begin next week at the earliest, after Seoul found no genetically modified organism (GMO) grain in tests of shipments.

However, shipments of western white to Japan are not expected to restart until the conclusion of a US investigation into how a GMO strain of wheat, developed by Monsanto Co but never put into commercial production, was discovered growing in a field.