Photo credit: U.S. Wheat Associates.
U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Director of Technical Services Marcelo Mitre presented on the quality of U.S. wheat at the 49th Annual International Association of the Operative Millers (IAOM) Latin America Region Conference and Expo, held last month in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Milling professionals and suppliers representing more than two dozen countries attended the event – an opportunity for USW to engage customers, specifically flour millers. in the region.
“One of the most valuable things about the IAOM is seeing people from the industry and getting to talk with them one-on-one, catching up and answering questions they have about each class of U.S. wheat,” said Mitre.
His presentation was based on the USW Crop Quality Seminars held in the region late last year to update customers on the 2025 U.S. wheat crop.
“There were a lot of discussion, both immediately following my talk and then later during the conference, when people would come up and ask questions specifically about their milling operations and the wheat they use in their mills,” Mitre said. “Many of the questions had to do with protein content, and about blending wheat classes.”
As an organization, the IAOM Latin America provides education, training and networking of grain milling professionals. This year, it is addressing regional milling challenges and highlighting modern technologies. Key sessions at the 2026 conference focused on wheat quality and imports, and there were also discussions on flour standardization and enhancing efficiency in wheat flour production.
Overall, the IAOM conference dealt with a wide variety of topics for millers, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it could affect milling operations. The information offered positioned AI “as it can be used as a tool, but like in most regions around the world, you see all levels of sophistication regarding AI in Latin America.”
Read more from USW here.