Rehberg trade group promotes wheat to pasta makers in Italy

By Noelle Straub, of The Lee Washington Bureau - 03/01/2007

WASHINGTON — Italian pasta makers may be importing Montana wheat soon as a result of a Montana World Trade Center trade mission, Rep. Denny Rehberg said Wednesday.

The visit also resulted in a cooperative agreement with an Italian university and possible new business for several Montana companies, he said.

“As always, I feel like it was very successful, but the proof will be in looking back in a week, a month and even a year,” Rehberg said in a conference call with reporters.

The trip lasted from Feb. 19-23 and took Rehberg, business executives and state officials through three regions of northern Italy.

They represented the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee in meetings with Italian pasta companies, said Eric Iverson, Rehberg’s chief of staff.

At the first meeting, a company committed to purchase 50,000 tons of Montana durum, pending final quality approval once the Italians receive samples, Iverson said. The deal is worth $12.5 million, he said.

Trade mission participants also met with another pasta company interested in a 10-year contract potentially worth $60 million. That company will be sending a representative to Montana to meet with producers. “They want to know the specific growers,” Iverson said.

“Montana hasn’t been selling much (wheat) in Italy and that’s about to change, and it’s about to change in a big way,” Iverson said.

The Italian pasta makers want Montana wheat because of its high protein content, said Arnie Sherman, executive director of MWTC. Italian companies importing wheat with lower protein content must pay a tariff, the officials on the conference call said. The Turkish wheat crop failed, giving the Italians even more incentive to turn to Montana, they said.

A Wheat and Barley Committee representative will travel to Italy to conduct a seminar on Montana wheat for other potential Italian buyers, they said.

Montana exporters will have to negotiate directly with the buyers on shipping the wheat, they said. “We were just trying to open up the lines of communications,” Rehberg said. “We just want to get a ready, willing, able buyer and seller together and step out of it.” Iverson said it “doesn’t look” like the wheat would be processed in Montana.

An agreement was reached with an Italian university setting up summer programs, faculty exchanges and research initiatives, the officials said. A new scholarship will allow a Montana economics student to study with Nobel prize winners.

The editor of an Italian hunting and shooting magazine agreed to run features on Montana-made products, they said.

Italian tourism promoters will visit Montana this summer and may push the state as a new destination. Rehberg also floated the idea of having week-long skiing trips combined with intensive English classes for Italian children.

Missoula-based companies Milky Whey and ArmorAuto also expect to pick up Italian business as a result of the trip, officials said.

Businesses pay their own way for the trip, Rehberg said.