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Sunday, Mar. 22, 1998
Texas companies market sorghum foods
Typically bitter grain being reprocessed as alternative for some health, taste needs
By MARK BABINECK
Associated PressHEREFORD -- As a livestock feed, sorghum has long been an indirect part of the U.S. food supply. Now, some Texas entrepreneurs are taking the direct approach.
Because of increasing demand for sorghum as a food product for humans, Jowar Foods Inc. recently completed a new mill that can make four times as much sorghum flour as the old one. Jowar's secretary-treasurer, Armon Lauderback, said the new facility, located up the road from this Texas Panhandle cattle center, already is grinding at full capacity.
``I didn't know whether this thing would work or not,'' said Lauderback, who handles the day-to-day operations of Jowar Foods out of his Hereford home. ``Coming from the seed industry, I knew the potential was there, and I knew there was a niche market.''
Naysayers, including many in the sorghum business, initially told Jowar management that people wouldn't be interested in eating something usually fed to animals.
``I have doubts whether sorghum has a bad image,'' said Charles Miller, Jowar's marketing director. ``What sorghum has is lack of an image at all.''
The company relies on exhaustive research by Miller's father, Fred Miller, a former Texas A&M University scientist who has spent 15 years developing white versions of the usually ruddy grain. Miller's variety has a more neutral flavor than milo, the markedly bitter sorghum fed to livestock.
Jowar, which means ``sorghum'' in Hindi, owns the patents to Miller's varieties.
``We're not bioengineering this stuff,'' Charles Miller said. ``It's plain-old plant breeding.''
Developing tasty sorghum was one thing. Finding people willing to substitute it for traditional grains like wheat and corn was another task entirely. Jowar pinpointed two target markets: One that wanted it, the other that needed it.
Immigrants from some northern Indian provinces and elsewhere in Asia and Africa wanted it, Lauderback said. Mild-tasting sorghum was a staple in their homeland, but here they either relied on imports or ate the bitter domestic alternative.
(Nueces County farmers harvested 204,600 acres of grain sorghum in 1997, officials with the Nueces County Agriculture Extension Service told the Caller-Times.
(However, local researchers have experimented with food-quality sorghum since 1979, Bobby Eddleman, resident director of Texas A&M University's Agricultural Research and Extension center on Texas Highway 44 near Clarkwood, told the Caller-Times.
(Research has shown that food-quality sorghum, the white and cream seeds, yields less than grain sorghum, the bronze and red seeds, under local dry-land farming conditions, Eddleman said. The edible grain does do well with irrigation in the Rio Grande Valley and the High Plains, he said.
(Another problem with growing food-quality sorghum locally is that there isn't a marketing and distribution structure in place, he said. All the sorghum now goes to silos and the seeds are mixed, so farmers would lose the benefit of growing a unique strain.)
(Researchers continue to experiment with three dozen varieties of the food-quality sorghum at the extension center, Eddleman said. The goal is to develop tropical and drought-resistant varieties of the grain, he said.)
Haresh Oberoi, owner of Houston-based ethnic foods distributor Dishaka USA, said food products made from traditional feed-type sorghum had existed, but ``when (Jowar) came up with the right product, it sold easily.''
Oberoi distributes Jowar products in Houston and major cities across the United States. While Jowar makes cereal, brownie mix and other items, Oberoi said the biggest seller is simple flour. Because Indian breads often are fried rather than baked, sorghum's inability to rise without additives doesn't hurt its marketability.
Stores receiving the products from Oberoi report steadily increasing demand, he said.
While some customers buy Jowar because they long for the old country, others do it out of necessity.
``Without question, (sorghum) is a pretty choice grain for a lot of reasons for people with celiac disease,'' said Scott Adams, who runs an Internet site dedicated to celiac, an intolerance for the gluten found in wheat and barley. ``Breads (using Jowar flour) are much more like wheat or barley breads than any other alternative grain.''
Gluten is the substance that makes dough rise and holds wheat-based bread together. Plenty of other grains can be mixed with gluten-like additives to somewhat resemble traditional wheat bread, but Adams said they usually fall short.
``A lot of times they end up coming out like a cake or something instead of something like real bread,'' said Adams, of San Francisco. ``Sorghum is heartier, heavier and sticks together better. You don't have to use other varieties of flours with it.''
Jowar's brownie mix went over particularly well with some celiac patients.
``There were people who said they hadn't had brownies in 10 years,'' said Robert Miller, Charles' brother and the company's production manager.
Although Jowar flour lacks the bitterness of feedlot sorghum, its nutty flavor might still be too strong for some who are looking for a completely neutral flour, said Janet Jones, wife of Florida celiac patient Michael Jones.
``People are conservative about what they eat,'' she said. ``If they want to go with bland, they might choose rice or corn.''
Between the millions of U.S. residents of Indian and African heritage and the celiac patients -- who number at least 50,000, according to experts -- Jowar officials believe there is plenty of reason for optimism.
``One of the things that makes it exciting for us is that we've got something unique,'' Charles Miller said. ``We developed the genetics of this plant.''
Jowar's goal is to become the nation's largest sorghum-based food producer within five years, Miller said. Lauderback said the company informally tests new product ideas all the time: Jowar trail mix and snack chips are the latest kitchen creations that haven't made the production line yet.
Lauderback and the Millers are reluctant to discuss their finances or identify Jowar's ownership group. They do acknowledge Jowar is faring well.
``The demand is there. For the last three years we've funded ourselves and haven't had to ask anyone for money,'' Charles Miller said. ``Now, it's time for national distribution.''
Staff writer Glaston Ford contributed to this report.Front Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web