Wheat: More Than Just Oil in North Dakota, Montana

For folks interesting in the Asia - Wheat story, the Billings Gazette has a great article.

The United Grain elevator is big, fast — and Japanese. It holds roughly 1 million bushels of wheat, can load 110 railcar shuttles in 10 hours and represents a growing trend in the globalization of the farm economy. Asian countries with rapidly growing middle classes are buying commodities like never before. And to meet that demand, global corporations are doing whatever it takes, including acquiring elevators in Montana farm country.

"The game changer is obviously China," said John McEnroe, executive vice president of country operations for CHS, America's largest grain marketing cooperative. "When it's growing at 6 to 9 percent (gross domestic product) each year, and they have a growing middle class, that causes exporters to expand their supply chain. What you see being built is mostly by multinational companies."

The article provides a nice summary of the wheat elevator-railroad loading facilities in Montana, with frequent mentions of North Dakota.