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South Korean flour mills will resume buying soft white wheat from the Pacific Northwest, the first major break in frozen export sales since genetically modified wheat plants were found growing in an eastern Oregon field this spring.
Korea will continue testing wheat shipments for the presence of transgenic material, but will not restrict purchases of wheat grown in Oregon, said Blake Rowe, chief executive of the Oregon Wheat Commission.
Korea and Japan, the biggest buyers of Pacific Northwest wheat, suspended new purchases after the "Roundup Ready" wheat plants were confirmed in May. Both countries accepted deliveries of wheat purchased before the discovery, but implemented testing procedures and have sought assurances that genetically engineered wheat has not entered the commercial stream.
Japan is the largest buyer, and both nations use wheat from Oregon, Washington and Idaho to make noodles, sponge cakes and crackers. They are adamantly opposed to importing genetically modified food.
State and federal agriculture officials are working with their Japanese counterparts, trying to negotiate a resumption of sales. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to investigate how the rogue plants emerged in the Oregon field.
"The only country that not returned to the market yet is Japan," Rowe said. "I know they want the USDA investigation finished -- we all want that -- but I'm not exactly sure what they'll require."
An unidentified farmer reported the plants -- scattered "volunteers" that popped up in a 125-acre field that was unplanted and otherwise empty -- did not die when he sprayed them with a glyphosate-based herbicide in late April.
Subsequent testing by Oregon State University and the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an arm of the USDA, determined the plants were a variety genetically modified by Monsanto Co. to resist its widely-used Roundup herbicide.
Monsanto field-tested the variety from 1998 to 2005 but ultimately withdrew its application for federal approval, largely because farmers said their primary customers did not want to buy GM wheat.
Federal investigators have questioned farmers and seed merchants and taken samples from fields and storage facilities, but have not found more genetically modified material. At this point, the discovery is limited to a single field, and investigators have not yet announced how it happened.
Wheat is a major state crop, worth $300 million to $500 annually depending on price and yield.
South Korea's decision to resume purchases comes as the Oregon wheat harvest is beginning and is good news for growers, Rowe said. Taiwan, a lesser importer, earlier resumed purchases.
Rowe hopes Japan will come to a similar agreement. Restricting wheat from Oregon alone would be difficult, as harvests are mingled and shipped between storage facilities across state lines and up and down the Columbia River, he said.
"We would consider that a real shame," he said. "It was Oregon growers that pioneered sales in Japan. It's a relationship that goes back to the 1940s and it would be a real shame to see this event create a break in that relationship."
Rowe said Oregon growers have protected the interests of their Japanese customers and "done the right thing" in reporting the wheat problem and urging federal investigators to share more information about the investigation.
U.S. Wheat Associates, a national marketing group, reported in late June that white wheat sales to Japan this year are 36 percent below the same point in 2012, and sales to South Korea were 60 percent less than last year.
Sales to the Philippines and China are also down compared with last year, according to U.S. Wheat Associates.
--Eric Mortenson