Quality preferences for wheat and wheat flour: Noodle wheat markets in Japan and South Korea

The quality characteristics of wheat and flour for noodle processing are important to Japanese and Korean millers in making purchasing decisions of imported wheat. This study focuses on improving knowledge about these quality characteristics. Multinomial logit models (MNL) were developed for each market to examine the preferences of Japanese and Korean millers on quality characteristics of wheat and flour. Survey data was collected using stated preference method (SPM) for both Japanese and Korean milling industries. In the evaluation of the Korean milling industry, an alternative method, called semantic differential scale (SDS), was also employed to derive millers' preferences on wheat and flour quality.;The parameter estimates of the MNL models are used to generate profiles of each wheat type and noodle flour product preferred by Korean and Japanese millers. These are compared to characteristics of wheat currently exported to Japan and South Korea by the three major exporting nations. This suggests that US wheat caters best to millers' preferences in the soft wheat market segments in the South Korean market, while US wheat caters best to millers' preferences in the hard and semi-hard wheat market segments in Japanese market. Australian wheat is found to cater best to millers' preferences for the medium class of wheat both in Japan and South Korea. Millers both in Japan and South Korea prefer wheat of Australian origin for medium and semi-hard wheats. For soft wheat, the US is the preferred source in South Korea. In Japan, the US is the preferred source for hard wheat. The results of the SDS analysis confirmed the SPM results for the Korean market. The marginal effect of changes in factor levels on the probability of choices by millers is calculated based on the estimated coefficients from the MNL models. Results suggest that Korean millers are more responsive than Japanese millers to changes in the levels of quality factors of wheat and flour. Korean millers are also found to be more stringent in the quality specifications that they apply in purchasing wheat. These findings suggest that wheat-exporting nations may need to develop differentiated programs of product development for wheat sales to Japan and South Korea.