GRAIN DATA COLLECTED BY CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77M00144R000300050049-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: October 3, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

HE WASHINGTON POST DATE '5QGf J% PAGE
said. -Lt could be Brazil, could '
be Russia, or it could be ,I
Co I
Agriculture Department gets,
ng, "There doesn't seem
to. be much coordination in
Washington." A. department
-... A _ that It
oes.,.smt>~a tie
an Morgan
pp,t staff
The Central InteffiL,~.
ea why the
CIA_
collecting the in-
-formation. In 1973, Congress
gave the department
i sponsibility for compiling
weekly reports of all grain
sales abroad. In addition to
those weekly reports, U.S.-
aseil firms are now required
10 inform the department
within 24 hours of any sale
eXceed1ng 100,000 metric tons.
$Wferring to the duplicate
URtnmercial export in-
telllligence gathering of the
CIA the chief of one major
grht'n company said this
week: They stay in touch
with us all the time."
Edward W. Cook, chairman of
ache board of Cook Industries,
-Inc., of Memphis, said in an
interview that he often reports
the same information to both
the CIA and the Agriculture
Department. "They stay in
cOftact with people who are
doing business with areas in
which they are interested," he
See ~ GRAIN, ,A2, Cola
okesman said yesterday
at he had no id
a n sales on a weekly basis.
Department of Agriculture
m n
bue
Includes requests fo
ra ins
formation__ on worldwide
Russian demand for grain,
an&eStimates of world sales to
the Soviet Union, or East
Europe, including American
cent series of detailed CIA
cries to grain co
i
port ant a ement of national
security, and possibly a useful
gauge of international
behavior of the Soviet Union, a
:fna,~or grain importer.
icia s ve incTicated 11 It7:hhe past that_ they consider
gralri supj5Iies to be an im-
essments of the strategic
a t sirrSUUnlies. !
.information from
IPlhvate U S. -companies on
their sales of grain to the
Soviet onion and other
countries, even though the
same data is gathered by tie
Department of Agriculture.
The grain export in-
formation - obtained by the
agency's domestic collections
brahc -, which often debriefs
businessmen who travel
abroad -- is nsede
Approved For Release 2002/01/02 : CIA-RDP77M00144R000300050049-4
reaching top officials of the
Agriculture Department
before the department's own.
CIA officials could not be
reached for cornmeal
yesterday.
STATINTL