Cascade Organic Flour makes Korean connections

ROYAL CITY — Cascade Organic Flour LLC. Owner/President Justin Brown is on record as saying, "We are seeing tremendous interest in our 'Farm to Table' organic wheat flour program, as consumers want to know where the flour in their bread and other baked goods comes from, and that it is healthy and natural.”

If things go according to plan, Cascade Organic Flour consumers will include the South Korean market. The central Washington company representatives had exceedingly good discussions with South Korean officials, which they hope will allow them to enter into the international market by the end of the year.

Cascade Organic Flour consultant Patrick Boss was one of five Grant County-based business representatives who traveled to Gunpo, South Korea to introduce eastern Washington products directly to markets abroad as part of an eight-day trade mission.

“There was clearly an overall interest by a number of buyers over in that marketplace for organic products,” Boss said. “There are some legitimate leads that came out of this trip. We were only over there for six-seven days, but I spent 80 percent of my time in business-to-business meetings. It was a pleasant surprise the level of interest that we ran into. It was very specific interest from companies that wanted specific information.”

Boss provided only general information, but did say follow-up meetings are scheduled.

“There’s definitely a very strong demand for U.S. or Washington state organic food products. It was very evident there was a clear demand,” Boss said. “I would say there are some leads that will come to solution in the next six months to a year.”

Without question, the initial negotiations went well. Now it’s a matter of international trade issues to work through, he said. There’s customs, transportation quotes, determining ports of entry, what the tariffs are or trade barriers, what can or can’t be shipped and the packaging all has to be hammered out.

The Korean interest in organic food sources is evident. Boss said one Korean bakery he visited had a sign on the wall telling its customers it uses only organic ingredients in its baked goods.

“They don’t really grow organic foods, so there’s definitely a lot of interest in purchasing organic foods,” Boss explained. “It’s not the pesticides that are an issue here for the Koreans. What they’re primarily concerned with is what we call Generically Modified Organisms (GMO). Their concern was genetic modification and that’s why they want organic.”

Back in February, Cascade Organic Flour LLC. announced its plans to double organic wheat acreage to 5,000 irrigated acres in the Columbia Basin by 2018. This increase in acreage will allow Cascade Organic Flour to produce 30 million pounds of whole wheat organic flour from its own organic wheat production in less than two years.

The operation is the largest family-owned, vertically-integrated organic wheat growing and organic wheat flour milling operation in the United States. The wheat is stored in state-of-the-art grain storage facilities, which allows a year-round stable supply of organic wheat that consistently supplies the organic flour mill.

One thing central Washington has going in its favor is location. Even though it is 5,292 miles away, it still has a logistics advantage over competitors.

“Our primary competitors in that market are Australia and Canada,” Boss said. “Clearly it’s not about taking business away from another state, it’s more about competing with Canada and Australia. With Washington state being fairly close to Korea logistically, I feel like we can compete in that market.”

A Korean bakery school in Seoul also expressed interest in Cascade Organic Flour products, according to Grant County Economic Development president Ray Towry.

“Cascade Organic Flour had interest from a bakery school to use their products, which is huge,” Towry said. “That’s a place where chefs are learning their trade. They are becoming familiar with this product. As they move out into their work force, they’re going to want to take that product with them. It’s a great introduction into the market there. As these people move out, they’ll continue to order the product and it will continue to grow as people graduate from this culinary school.”