Pet-food ills turn light on import gap

But despite the demand, the plant taps only 20 percent of its capacity to produce wheat gluten, a statistic some farmers say demonstrates the devastating effects of globalization on a region known as America's wheat basket. Domestic companies can't compete with the price of imported gluten, they say.

The plant is just a few dozen miles from a competitor's warehouse whose shipments of imported wheat gluten last month sparked one of the nation's largest pet food recalls. Until the news that an industrial chemical in the shipments was linked to cat and dog deaths, few realized that as much as 80 percent of wheat gluten used in the United States for human and animal food comes mainly from Asia and Europe .

Last year , according to customs records, Chinese suppliers shipped 28.3 million pounds of wheat gluten to the United States for animal use . Ten years ago, they exported just 3.3 million pounds.

A group that represents the nation's "dirt-under-the-fingernails" wheat growers says subsidies from foreign governments, combined with low US tariffs for imports, have resulted in a flood of imported wheat gluten priced significantly below the 65 cents per pound the domestic version fetched at the time the tainted shipment arrived. Last year, wheat gluten from China averaged 43 cents per pound at the port of arrival, said Steve Pickman , MGP Ingredients vice president of corporate relations .

"Wheat gluten from China is cheaper; that is what it all boils down to," said John Thaemert , president of the National Association of Wheat Growers and a producer based in Kansas .

US Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said the Food and Drug Administration inspects less than 1 percent of the imported food it regulates.

The Chinese wheat gluten that sickened an estimated 39,000 American pets, and killed an undetermined number, "only heightens my concern about the agency's ability to inspect imported products," DeLauro said .

The Senate held its first oversight hearing on the pet food recall last week , and the House of Representatives will soon follow with its own session.

MGP Ingredients is the third-largest employer in Atchison, a town of 10,000 that is best known as the birthplace of aviator Amelia Earhart . It could also become the birthplace of a movement to shift the market dynamics that have made domestic wheat gluten more expensive than imports. Changes such as renewing import quotas, setting a minimum price for imports, or demanding that products carry labels indicating a domestic or foreign wheat gluten source could help shore up domestic production.

"We're totally in favor of a free-market system, but there has to be equity with that system," Pickman said, between taking telephone calls from customers seeking assurance that their wheat gluten is safe.

"In the mid-90s, we went to Washington to fight a battle to try to bring greater equity into the marketplace. That was one of the real frustrating aspects of the whole trade situation," Pickman said. "We could not compete in the European s' wheat starch market, but they can compete in our gluten market at will. They could reduce their prices to whatever level is required to move their product in the marketplace."

The inequity remains today, he said.

Kansas growers have planted 10.3 million acres with wheat during this growing season, according to the US Department of Agriculture . In most years, the state is the country's top wheat producer. While corn is the dominant crop in some parts of Kansas, other regions have the unique mix of early-season chill and late-season heat that hard-red winter wheat favors, as well as the irrigation to sustain it, said Joe Kejr , president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers .

Come summer, trucks will form a bumper-to-bumper cordon around MGP Ingredients' processing plant, which mills the grain and extracts such products as wheat starch , gluten , bran, and mill feed .

For every 2.2 bushels of wheat , the plant can mill 100 pounds of flour . From that, the company extracts 60 pounds of wheat starch and about 14 pounds of wheat gluten , Pickman said. Colored like beach sand and fluffy like flour, gluten shows unique elasticity when water is added. It allows a mound of bread dough to stretch as it is kneaded and helps prevent yeast from forming massive air pockets.

The company offsets its losses on gluten through high-volume sales of wheat starch, a natural by product when the gluten is extracted from wheat. It sells gluten to some of the nation's top human-food producers.

If the domestic demand for wheat gluten grows, the plant could raise its annual wheat gluten production from 24 million pounds to as much as 100 million pounds . That could mean bigger paychecks and more financial stability for growers, according to Kejr.

"The bottom line is that if there was more of a market for local wheat gluten, it would support the local wheat price, therefore bringing more profit to the producers of Kansas," he said.

Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com.