MANHATTAN, Kan. – With their market long-mired in the doldrums, Kansas wheat growers are getting mixed reviews from overseas about their crop.

Export sales of hard red winter (HRW) wheat are up from a year ago but lag the volume necessary to meet the government’s latest annual sales projections, a Kansas State University agricultural economist said.

"I’m expecting that HRW exports (including wheat products) will be 502 million bushels," said Bill Tierney, agricultural economist with K-State Research and Extension. "This projection is 22 million bushels larger than the 1999/00 HRW exports but is well behind the pace needed to meet USDA’s ‘implied’ HRW wheat grain (excluding wheat products) export projection of 482 million bushels."

On average, HRW sales as of mid May account for 11 percent of annual exports but this year’s sales were only 2 percent of the annual projection for HRW "grain" exports.

USDA will release its first "by class" wheat export projections for 2000/01 in July.

The good news, Tierney said, is that in its May Supply/Demand Report, the USDA projected 2000/01 overall wheat exports at 1.125 billion bushels – up from its projection for 1999/00 exports of 1.075 billion.

The news is tempered, however, by data that show just 5 percent of wheat grain exports were contracted as of mid May, compared with 11 percent typically contracted as of that date. The figures do not include food aid tenders.

Among major U.S. wheat customers, sales to the European Union, Egypt, Nigeria and Taiwan were above year-ago levels in May.

"At 18 million bushels, wheat commitments to Egypt were 15 million bushels more than last year and a record figure for this time of year," Tierney said.

Commitments to Japan, Korea, Mexico and the Philippines, however, were down from last year.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan.