“The high-protein segment of the Nigerian market that was once (dominated by) U.S. wheat was completely replaced by CWRS in the last several years,” says Esey Assefaw, head of Asian products and pasta technology at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi). “The remainder of the wheat needed by this market is from the U.S. and Black Sea region (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) and is medium to low protein.”

In 2016-17, Nigeria imported nearly 822,000 tonnes of CWRS — the highest in the last five years — in addition to 31,500 tonnes of Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD), and smaller amounts of Canada Western Red Winter and Canada Northern Hard Red totalling 17,000 tonnes.

About 17 per cent of Nigerian wheat imports are currently from Canada, says Yvonne Supeene, Cigi’s head of baking technology. As a high-protein wheat, CWRS is primarily used for blending with lesser-quality wheats. “Bread is the main wheat-based end-product but pasta, rice and noodles are also eaten. This is a growing market for western Canadian wheat and the potential is huge.”

Supeene and Assefaw were part of a Cigi technology team that also included Norbert Cabral, acting head of Cigi milling technology, who visited Lagos, Nigeria, in March. While there, a technical workshop and seminar were held for customers on the fundamentals of CWRS quality related to milling, baking, and the processing of noodles and pasta.

The session participants represented 85 per cent of the market and other wheat classes such as CWAD and Canada Prairie Spring Red were also showcased, says Assefaw. He notes that pasta processing is the fastest-growing food manufacturing sector of the Nigerian market. “Although CWAD is used for pasta, price sensitivity in this market may also provide an opportunity for other wheat classes such as CPSR.”

Assefaw says another common Nigerian product for which CWAD may also have potential use is semovita, a starchy food made of wheat or white wheat, cooked into a paste and eaten with soups.

Supeene says bakers in Nigeria face challenges such as extreme heat and rudimentary processing methods. The marketplace does not have large industrialized bakeries and the infrastructure does not support wide distribution of bread products. “The baking industry is completely different from North America. There are about 90,000 small bakeries, mixing is done by hand, and bread is produced mainly for a local market.

“Customers depend on the high-protein, high-quality and strong gluten characteristics of CWRS to help overcome any processing challenges,” she says. “Improvements have been made to the CWRS class in the last few years and that quality and consistency needs to be maintained.”

Cigi began meeting with customers in West Africa several years ago and last December presented new crop seminars with a Canadian industry team in Nigeria and Ghana. The most recent technical visit to Nigeria was formalized at that time and more visits to this growing market are expected in future.

“It’s important that we maintain a presence in Nigeria,” says Assefaw. “Even though Russian wheat quality is inconsistent compared to CWRS, customers are getting used to it and may find ways to manage it. U.S. wheat was replaced by CWRS so we can’t take this market for granted. Ongoing technical support to this market is needed to maintain relationships so Nigeria will continue to buy from Canada.”

The post CWRS makes inroads in Nigeria appeared first on Country Guide.

You’d think not much, but for all its advantages, winter wheat is a crop in decline on the Prairies. Statistics Canada reported 915,000 acres in 2014, but it’s dropped each year since and only 410,000 acres were reported last year — only a third of the record 1.3 million acres in 2012.

Gary Stanford, a grain producer from Magrath, Alta., and vice-chair of the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC), says weather is partly to blame.

Generally, the best practice is to plant winter wheat from late August to mid-September, giving the crop a chance to become well-established so it will reliably overwinter. Seed much later than that and there’s real risk that the crop will not overwinter well, says Stanford.

“Last year when people went in to seed their winter wheat, it had been so hot and dry through June, July and August that all the moisture in the ground was depleted right across the southern half of Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

Early October 2017 brought rain to areas of southern Alberta, urging many dedicated winter wheat growers to plant at that time. However, Stanford says these acres are likely not reflected in the StatsCan report. “By seeding winter wheat that late in the year you can’t insure it for crop insurance so some of that might not be in the StatsCan report.”

Quality differences drive lower price point

But weather isn’t the only factor. In many ways, winter wheat lives in the shadow of Canadian spring wheat. Although neither is “better” than the other, they usually serve different end-uses, with spring wheat tending to occupy a more lucrative space at the top end of the value chain. And that ultimately affects everything from winter wheat’s price point to its role in the bakery.

“Spring and winter wheat are different by design,” says Stanford. “Canadian spring wheat varieties — which produce high protein and strong gluten — are designed to be top-quality milling wheats and in that capacity are among the best spring wheats in the world. They are frequently found in the same high-rising loaves of bread one would find at their local grocery store.”

Winter wheat contains lower protein and lower-strength gluten, causing it to be earmarked for flatter, denser breads as well as pizza dough. “While both can be used in baking, the spring wheats are designed to produce superior results,” says Stanford.

This lower protein content tends to be the elephant in the room when it comes to what producers can expect to receive upon delivery to the elevator. Although discounts vary throughout the year, Canadian winter wheat generally contains two or three lower protein percentage points than springs.

Canadian prices may also suffer from the relatively small and dispersed production across the Prairies, making it difficult for exporters to offer consistent supplies, especially when competing against the U.S., where it’s the main crop and available in large quantities year-round.

Improved varieties on the way

The good news is there are new varieties in the pipeline that have been bred with higher resistance to drought as well as common crop pests. Rob Graf, a leading plant breeder at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, is among those working to improve both the agronomic and milling qualities of Canadian winter wheat.

The Alberta Wheat Commission has supported Graf’s work, along with other projects aimed at improving winter wheat’s performance, says Stanford. “In just over five years, AWC has invested more than half a million dollars in winter wheat-specific research to strengthen the class overall.”

It’s hoped this will build on work by AWC and Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) efforts to develop the market for winter wheat in overseas markets.

AAFC Icefield, which was developed in Graf’s program, was recently registered as the first hard white winter wheat variety in Western Canada. Cigi has demonstrated its potential for producing Asian noodles with improved end-use product quality.

Graf says one of the best-kept secrets about Canadian Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat is its milling quality. “It’s actually our best milling wheat in Western Canada. Studies by Cigi have shown that winter wheat in our CWRW class has superior milling characteristics compared to U.S. hard red winter wheat as measured by flour yield, flour ash and flour colour.”

But he says protein content and water absorption are concerns.

“Compared to our red spring wheat the protein concentration has been lower — on average in the two to two-and-a-half per cent range. Some of the older varieties were also lower in gluten strength; we’ve corrected that with recent varieties.”

The main challenge in breeding higher-protein winter wheat is the constant push-pull between yield and protein content.

Encouraging news on protein

“As you increase protein, yield tends to come down, so the challenge is to maintain progress in yield while increasing protein at the same time,” Graf says.

“We don’t want to go backwards in yield; we want to maintain and increase our yields, but at the same time increase protein concentration a per cent to a per cent-and-a-half.”

Another ongoing issue with winter wheat is its relatively low water absorption, a disadvantage for bakers. “The amount of water the flour will absorb is quite a bit lower than some of our spring bread wheat classes,” says Graf.

“What it means is that for a given amount of flour made with our red winter class, you get less dough. Typically our western red spring wheat will run in that 65 to 68 per cent absorption range while our winter wheat runs from 57 to 60. That’s a substantial difference.

“This is something I’ve been working very hard on correcting. Within the next few years it certainly looks like we’ll have some nice progress in absorption among some of the lines going towards registration.”

Graf says correcting these limitations should compel buyers to reconsider winter wheat.

“My hope is that customers will look at the red winter wheat quality profile and recognize that it will fit their needs precisely,” Graf says. “That would hopefully be reflected in price, and if the price is good, acreage will hopefully follow as well.”

Wildlife- and market-friendly

Another benefit of winter wheat is as a habitat for nesting birds (see below). Since there are no spring tillage operations, nesting birds are not disturbed and their young ones have matured before combines arrive in August or September. Ducks Unlimited Canada says research shows that ducks that choose to nest in winter wheat are 24 times more productive than those who choose to nest in spring-sown cereals.

“With many consumers becoming increasingly mindful of sustainability, these benefits could help differentiate and build value around products made using winter wheat,” says Daniel Ramage, director of market development with Cereals Canada.

The post The great western winter wheat rescue is on appeared first on Country Guide.

“These publications are aimed at international purchasers of Australian grain,” the association (AEGIC) said in its release, adding they “are also great resources for Australian growers and other Australian grains industry stakeholders.”

I found it very interesting that one of our major grain exporting competitors is promoting sales through the distribution of brochures that describe Australian-grown wheat, oats, barley, canola, and pulses to international and domestic buyers, as well as to Australian producers and industry partners.

It made me wonder if there are any Canadian equivalents. Are similar brochures being used by anyone in Canada to encourage international and domestic buyers to purchase Canadian grains?

I was quite disappointed by what I found out.

I contacted Madeleine Goodwin, manager of marketing and communications of Pulse Canada and asked if her group has promotional brochures about pulses for buyers and processors. After all, Pulse Canada has a “25 by 25” goal, seeking a 25 per cent growth with new and sustainable demand and new uses of pulses by 2025, which they hope to achieve by marketing the health, nutritional and environmental benefits of pulses.

Because of this goal I wondered if Pulse Canada is using brochures to get this marketing message out. Goodwin informed me that they do not have any type of sales brochures but referred me to the Pulse Canada website where I could find lots of information about pulses.

So I called on Kelly Green, director of communications with the Canadian Canola Growers Association, which “represent(s) over 43,000 Canadian canola farmers on national and international issues” according to the CCGA website. Surely an organization that represents the growers of a Canadian-developed oilseed crop that is renowned for its healthy attributes would be active in all avenues of promotion to buyers.

Furthermore, from trade shows, I am well aware that CCGA publishes and distributes producer-oriented brochures covering topics like dockage, grading, and sales contracts. However, Green told me the primary focus of the CCGA is on policy. She was quick to add that the CCGA does participate in trade missions and seminars in which the value of Canadian canola is promoted but the CCGA does not have brochures that promote canola to buyers or end-users.

I got a similar response from the Canola Council of Canada. The council’s focus is on canola production rather than sales and they do not have brochures to promote the sale of canola to buyers or processors.

I thought I was finally successful in finding a sales brochure for Canadian wheat when I spoke with Brenna Mahoney, director of communications and stakeholder relations with Cereals Canada. Cereals Canada is a non-profit partnership of a number of grower associations and industry partners representing all sectors of the cereal value chain. According to Mahoney, they represent the entire cereal story from farmer to the plate.

Mahoney described the trade missions Cereals Canada conducts each year as “an overview of the industry and in-depth presentations about the quality of the current year’s crop.” She reported 19 seminars were held this past year for the top customers of Canadian cereal grains.

Mahoney noted that at each of the seminars, buyers were provided with the publication Canadian Wheat. She added that this publication is also available on the Cereals Canada website for anyone interested in learning more about Canadian wheat.

Does Canadian Wheat fulfil the role of a sales brochure?

There is an amazing similarity between the Canadian Wheat brochure and the comparably titled Australian Wheat brochure. Aside from the name, both front covers also feature a picture of a combine harvesting wheat.

But then the messages diverge. I found intriguing differences between the two publications and wondered about the messaging of each so I contacted Janet Attard. Attard is a business author, the CEO of Attard Communications, and founder and CEO of Business Know-How, a website reaching almost five million individual business owners and professionals each year. She is a strong proponent of a well-designed sales brochure. She even has an online article on 13 ways to create effective brochures.

Attard stressed that an effective brochure must do four things: get attention, create interest in the product, raise desire for the product, and get readers to take a specific action.

So how do the two wheat brochures compare in achieving these goals?

The subtitle on Australian Wheat was “Quality, versatility, and reliability.” By looking at the brochure cover a wheat buyer would know right away the purpose of the brochure and the potential benefits of buying wheat from Australia.

On the other hand, the subtitle on Canadian Wheat is “Great wheat starts with great roots.” Even as a wheat grower I am not sure what that means! I expect a wheat buyer would be even more confused.

The Australian Wheat brochure cover also includes the text: “Australian wheat is highly valued for its excellent performance across a wide range of food products, especially noodles and breads.” Now that should interest a wheat buyer.

Canadian Wheat also had additional text on the cover: “2017 CROP IN REVIEW.” If you were a wheat buyer or bread maker, which cover would be more likely to capture your attention?

The next thing to note is Australian Wheat is eight pages long. Canadian Wheat is 38 pages. When I asked Attard about the length of the two, she considered eight pages as very long and flatly said no one is going to read 38 pages.

What I really questioned was the opening message presented in the two brochures. Australia Wheat immediately uses point form to build on the theme of high-quality Australian wheat and how it can meet a buyer’s needs no matter what those needs are. A map shows the demand for Australian wheat around the world. And it clearly states Australian wheat is “Grown in a clean and safe environment.”

Compare that to the first paragraph of text in Canadian Wheat: “Some of the factors that influence crop selection are based on plant disease pressures, soil conditions and land stewardship priorities. Wheat varieties are carefully chosen, based on characteristics including yield potential, protein content, and disease and insect resistance….”

Australian Wheat focuses on the clean, safe environment that wheat is grown on Down Under. The first sentence of Canadian Wheat brings up disease pressures and the second adds in insect resistance! Attard could not understand why potential problems would be mentioned in a sales brochure.

Nine pages of Canadian Wheat focus on farmers and the growing of wheat in Canada. While this may make a very interesting presentation in a seminar setting, especially when presented by a farmer with great visuals, is it appropriate in a sales brochure?

When buying a tractor, do you ask about the working conditions on the assembly line? Do you seek information about the environmental impact of pesticide formulation, or the underground working conditions of potash miners when buying crop inputs? Sure, it is great to get the opportunity to tour a factory producing the inputs we need and even to listen to a speaker about their work in providing the inputs our farms require, but I doubt many farmers are going to feel a need to read about the production process behind the product they are looking to buy.

Let’s be honest, most buyers have a singular focus when considering a purchase. What will the product do for me? Buyers don’t care about your production issues, or even if you are profitable. While discussion of profit maximization in a brochure may sound good to farmers growing the crop, it more than likely makes a buyer wonder if they are paying too much.

In essence, this brochure is yet another example of how poor farmers are at marketing the crops they grow. No question, some farmers are better and more successful price takers than others, but the bottom line is most farmers are very poor at finding and keeping customers, which is what marketing is really about. This is reflected in the numerous commissions, associations, boards and organizations that farmers are called to fund.

Other than Cereals Canada, nearly all farm organizations are more focused on production or policy (complaining to or about government) than marketing the crops they claim to represent.

We have even allowed governments to de-fund and dumb down the Canadian Grain Commission and the Canadian International Grains Institute, two of the best marketing resources for grains in Canada. I expect most farmers would even scoff at the suggestion that we look at sales brochures for Canadian-grown grain.

Make no mistake: a sales brochure alone is not the answer to selling Canadian grains. It is simply one more marketing tool, but it is a tool that needs to be considered when it is already being used by our competitors.

Furthermore, for a Canadian grains brochure to be effective it must focus on the needs of the customer first, and second on the product we are selling. We need to clearly define the benefit our crops will offer the customer, design a specific message for the targeted customer, and then outline the next step the customer should take.

Australia’s farmers have mastered the brochure for grain sale promotion. Canada needs to catch up!

What makes a good brochure?

Janet Attard, founder and CEO of Business Know-How, says a well-designed sales brochure will increase sales for any business, from a home-based online startup to a multinational corporation.

Even in today’s increasingly web-based market, sales brochures still make sense. There are long lists of reasons why brochures remain effective:

• A well-designed brochure is easy to use, especially compared to many websites.
• A brochure is meant to be long lasting. Once you leave a webpage, it is often quickly forgotten. A brochure is there until you no longer have interest in the product.
• A brochure is physical. It is real. Human nature tends to favour the aesthetic qualities paper provides compared to images and text on a screen.
• Brochures can offer a personal touch if provided in a trade show, seminar or meeting.
• Brochures can add professionalism to a sales presentation.

However, the benefit of a brochure is limited by its quality. If you want to use a brochure as part of your marketing strategy, learn more about what makes a brochure great. Read Attard’s “13 Ways to Make Your Sales Brochures Effective.”

The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources has an online guide for creating effective brochures.

The Center for Profitable Agriculture at the University of Tennessee Extension has posted: “Developing Effective Marketing Materials: Brochure Design Considerations.”

The post Out-competed appeared first on Country Guide.

José Fernando Chacón Valencia, production and project manager for Harinera del Valle, a major milling and food processing company in Colombia, says that in the past several years his company has exclusively purchased Canadian wheat. As one of the country’s leading pasta producers, it uses CPSR and CWAD, respectively, for lower- and higher-quality pasta as well as blends of CPSR and CWRS for bread flour.

“We use both common wheat and durum wheat for pasta,” Chacón Valencia said while on a technical exchange at the Canadian International Grains Institute in September. “The market for premium pasta in Colombia is very small, and we only use CWAD for that. For the rest we use 100 per cent CPSR.”

In Colombia, pasta is more often served on special occasions and may be sold in packages as small as 90 grams, particularly in less affluent areas, he says. “Even then it may be for two or three people. They are not concerned whether it is al dente (firm texture) or has a nice (yellow) colour (that durum wheat provides). They look more at the price so in this regard CPSR is a good wheat for pasta.”

Chacón Valencia says that a few years ago CPSR improved in quality and has consistently met his company’s needs. Although at times there have been supply issues, there are no recent concerns.

During his time at Cigi, he also looked at other Canadian wheat classes such as the new Canada Northern Hard Red. “I wanted to find out more about CNHR and it sounds very good.”

Last June, Cigi visited Colombia, Peru and Chile and met with companies that import an average total of about 70 per cent of the wheat in each country. One objective was to learn about their use of CWRS and CPSR for flour and semolina production, both in blends and with other wheats as well as in end-use applications. At the time, the Cigi technical staff met with Cachón Valencia at Harinera del Valle where they found out more about the company’s operations and requirements.

Esey Assefaw, head of Cigi’s Asian products and pasta technology, says that the countries they visited have sophisticated milling and food processing operations, and as relative newcomers to pasta have assimilated it with softer traditional food products like rice.

“Typically they use 100 per cent CPSR for low- to medium-quality pasta and they will also do some blending with (higher-protein) CWRS or other wheats for baking and other end products such as noodles,” he says.

Yvonne Supeene, Cigi’s head of baking technology, says she was impressed with the amount of CPSR used in Latin American countries. “The biggest thing I took away was how valuable CPSR is in the market for pasta, as well as bread. They love it. There is a huge demand and if we had more they would buy it. They aren’t after really high protein, so a low-protein CWRS, or CPSR can meet their requirements. We noticed in those markets how CPSR is as important to them as CWRS.”

The Cigi staff also determined that if CPSR is in short supply it can be replaced with U.S. HRW, which used to be more commonly used than CPSR. Maintaining an ongoing relationship with Latin American customers is important as competitor wheats such as those from the U.S. and Black Sea region are slowly making inroads.

In 2015-16 Canadian wheat purchases totalled 916,000 tonnes (MT) in Colombia, more than 1.1 million MT in Peru, and 284,000 MT in Chile. Durum imports were about 31,000 MT for Colombia, 111,000 MT for Peru and 10,500 MT in Chile.

The post CPSR wheat popular for pasta and breads in Latin America appeared first on Country Guide.

Senior managers from Grupo Trimex, Mexico’s largest milling company and a customer of CWRS, attended a one-week technical exchange at the Canadian International Grains Institute in Winnipeg in June following a first-time visit by Cigi staff in Mexico last February.

Investigating other Canadian wheat classes was one reason Grupo Trimex accepted the invitation, according to one participant. The technical exchange featured hands-on demonstrations in Cigi’s facilities including the pilot mill and bakery as well as a tour of a Manitoba seed farm and a terminal elevator in Ontario.

“Mexico is a huge market which imported 4.6 million tonnes of Canadian wheat over five years to 2015, or about 17 per cent of their total,” says Juan Carlos Arriola, head of Cigi milling technology. “The Canadian imports averaged about one million tonnes per year but then dropped to about 700,000 MT in 2015-16 mainly because they bought more Russian wheat.”

Arriola says in his past experience working as a head miller in Latin America, Russian wheat was not considered a viable alternative to Canadian wheat. However, when in Mexico, Cigi staff discovered a significant amount was imported due to price, availability and improved quality.

Mexican milling companies import wheat from other origins as well, he says, such as France and the Black Sea region, often through brokers. While Canada exports mostly high-protein, high-quality CWRS, some customers purchase “grocery vessel” shipments of different quality and protein wheats from competitor countries for use in various types of bread.

Bread applications using CWRS are only 25 to 35 per cent of the Mexican market, Arriola says. “CWRS is often used for blending with local or other wheat to improve strength rather than using wheats like CPSR and CWRW because there is not always enough availability or knowledge about the different Canadian wheat classes.”

Luis Cortes, Grupo Trimex’s operations and technical director who is responsible for the operation of 10 mills across Mexico, says his company makes its own wheat purchases and imports about 200,000 MT of Canadian wheat annually, 99 per cent being CWRS. In total, Grupo Trimex imports about 1.2 million tonnes annually of which 70 per cent is from the U.S. as well as from Russia, Ukraine and France in addition to local wheat.

Cortes says his company mills a range of flours from low-protein cake flour to high-protein industrial bakery flours. Few of their customers require 100 per cent CWRS although some do for premium products.

“About 80 to 90 per cent of our production involves blending wheats, so we can use CPSR, CNHR or CWRS,” Cortes says. “Since Cigi’s visit to Mexico in February we found there are these other milling classes available. We have seen the (milling and baking) performance results of CNHR, all the technical data, and it looks very promising.”

Cortes says his four colleagues on the technical exchange also included the manager of the largest mill in Latin America and manager of the company’s second largest mill. “I asked them to come to Cigi as well because they are the largest users of CWRS and would likely be the first to use CPSR or CNHR.”

Meeting with Cigi technical staff in Mexico and coming to Winnipeg has opened doors, he says, adding that also establishing close working relationships with wheat suppliers is key to doing business with Grupo Trimex.

“The relationship with traders is very important for us,” Cortes says. “We need partners who can provide solutions for our needs.”

The post Competing with Russian wheat appeared first on Country Guide.

Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute, on Tuesday announced the new funding model, plus a new governance model setting up a new 10-member board of directors representing its sponsor organizations.

Winnipeg-based Cigi said the new funding formula will see the three wheat commissions and seven grain firms provide $7.7 million over the next two years, representing the institute’s “core funding.”

The seven grain firms supporting Cigi will include:

• privately-held Winnipeg grain companies Richardson International, Paterson Grain and Parrish and Heimbecker;
• Viterra, the Canadian grain arm of commodity firm Glencore;
• the Canadian arm of U.S. agrifood firm Cargill;
• G3 Canada, the privatized former Canadian Wheat Board (CWB); and
• five farmer-owned grain terminal companies in Saskatchewan and Alberta, represented by the Inland Terminal Association of Canada.

The Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association will provide their shares of Cigi funding through their respective wheat checkoffs.

According to the wheat commissions in a separate statement, Cigi has asked the three commissions for funding that matches grain industry contributions over the next two crop years.

The commissions’ funding for Cigi replaces farmer checkoff funding the institute received through the Western Canadian Deduction. That checkoff, set up in 2012 by then-federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz following the deregulation of the CWB, sunsets on July 31, Cigi noted Tuesday.

“Today’s announcement represents the culmination of months of consultations involving the value chain,” JoAnne Buth, Cigi’s CEO since 2014, said in a release Tuesday. “We are extremely pleased that the provincial wheat commissions and the grain companies and handlers developed a consensus on a sustainable funding and governance model for Cigi.”

Where Cigi’s board had previously reflected its founding organizations, with members from the federal government, CWB and Canadian Grain Commission, the institute in 2013 reworked its governance to include representation from farmers as well as exporters, processors and others in the industry.

Under the latest funding and governance model, however, the first board will include five representatives from the wheat commissions and five representatives from the grain handler/exporter sector, elected June 29 at Cigi’s annual meeting.

Kevin Bender, a Sylvan Lake, Alta. farmer and the Alberta Wheat Commission’s vice-chair, will chair Cigi’s new board. Brent Watchorn, Richardson International’s executive vice-president for marketing, will be the new board’s vice-chair, while Jim Smolik, head of corporate affairs for Cargill Canada, will be board secretary.

New board members also include Drew Baker of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association; Bill Gehl and Harvey Brooks of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission;  Gary Stanford of the Alberta Wheat Commission; Trent Rude of Viterra; Jean-Marc Ruest of Richardson International; and (unavailable for the photo above) Ward Weisensel of G3 Canada.

Three previous Cigi board members, including chair Murdoch MacKay and directors Henry Van Ankum and Lawrence Yakielashek, will remain with the board as observers “to provide continuity during the transition,” Cigi said.

Randy Johner and Jim Wilson, farmer members of Cigi’s previous board, will retire as directors.

Bender, in Tuesday’s release, hailed the outgoing board members’ “foresight and determination… in guiding Cigi through a period of significant industry change.”

The new board, he said, comes to an organization with “a long and distinguished history of working on behalf of farmers and industry to promote and demonstrate the quality and functionality of Canadian grain in international markets.”

Cigi, set up as a not-for-profit body in 1972 with federal government and farmer funding via the CWB, is now billed as an independent organization working with field crop value chains in Canada and internationally.

The institute today provides applied research, training and technical support services to drive development and use of Canadian crops — including wheat, durum, barley, canola and other oilseeds, pulses and other special crops such as canaryseed and mustard — for domestic and export markets.

Cigi, which still also gets federal funding via the AgriMarketing and AgriInnovation programs, broadened its activities in recent years to include pulse crop product and market development.

That pulse crop work, Cigi said, is now backed by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program, Pulse Canada, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Manitoba’s Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (Manitoba Agriculture) and Warburtons. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Prairie wheat commissions, grain firms to fund Cigi appeared first on Country Guide.

“The aim of Cigi’s pilot bakery is to replicate what the industry does,” says Yvonne Supeene, head of baking technology. “We reduced the salt level in all bread formulations, and in our test bakery as well. It’s a great initiative, and the right thing to do.”

Supeene says that, in addition to Canada, bakers in many other countries are reducing salt use, with the U.K. taking an early lead.

Cigi’s baking technical specialist Yulia Borsuk concurs. “When we visited commercial bakeries in Latin America last year, for example, sodium reduction was of primary importance.”

The Canadian baking industry, has been gradually reducing salt levels in commercial breads in response to a Health Canada initiative aiming to decrease sodium consumption as a health risk contributing to rates of hypertension and heart disease. According to Health Canada, Canadians consume twice the recommended amount of sodium, largely from processed foods.

In 2008 Health Canada established the Sodium Working Group to set guidelines for a gradual voluntary decrease of sodium in the Canadian food supply by December 31, 2016. A document Health Canada published for the food industry in 2012 set a target level of 330 mg per 100 g for pan bread.

The Baking Association of Canada says that between 2009 and 2015 the industry voluntarily reduced sodium levels by 13 per cent in white pan bread and 16 per cent in whole wheat breads.

Lower salt requires better wheat

However, Borsuk says salt is an essential ingredient in baking around the world.

“Sodium has a huge impact. It not only enhances the flavour but is also very important functionally in that it strengthens the gluten (protein) and makes the dough feel stronger in addition to other reactions.”

Supeene says salt is typically added at a level of 1.5 to two per cent, and slows the rate of fermentation, controls bacterial growth, and acts as a preservative. Salt reduction not only affects protein functionality but also end-product quality and shelf life.

“Salt is the major, but not the only, source of sodium in bread as even water contains it so the sodium level depends on the formulation of all ingredients,” she says. Cigi used a calculation to reduce sodium to the target level in formulations then sent the bread samples to a lab for verification.

Supeene points out that sodium reduction is also of importance to wheat growers because it affects the quality of wheat used for different commercial bread products.

“Globally, the expectation of high wheat quality is going to become even more critical because a lack of sodium stresses the gluten or protein quality.”

She says that when meeting with international customers who are reducing sodium levels, Cigi will need to demonstrate that Canadian wheat will still perform well, providing the end-product quality they have come to expect.

“Different markets have varying degrees of sophistication and knowledge and many customers prefer a higher protein class such as CWRS to blend with other (weaker) wheats for their products,” Supeene says. “We can help customers with any challenges they face with sodium reduction, provide technical information on alternatives or the impact of changing formulation. Some may be willing to lower product quality while others may want the identical quality and to know what they can do to compensate.”

She adds that for the 2017-18 crop year Cigi will use its lower sodium levels when evaluating bread quality for the annual harvest assessment in preparation for the new crop missions, as well as for potential new wheat varieties submitted to Cigi for Prairie Grain Development Committee testing.

The post Cutting down on the salt appeared first on Country Guide.

Together with Warburtons, the U.K.’s largest bakery brand, the Canadian International Grains Institute is undertaking its most comprehensive investigation into quality characteristics and functionality of pulses and pulse flours as ingredients in baked products, says Ashok Sarkar, senior adviser in technology at Cigi.

“Improving on common wheat-based food products by adding pulse ingredients — which are high in protein and fibre — or using them to create new products can open the door to greater demand for pulses and more opportunities for food processors,” he says.

Elaine Sopiwnyk, Cigi’s director of grain quality, adds that there are some positive aspects to combining pulses with wheat in food products. “They are complementary to wheat in terms of amino acids, so when you combine them you have a full or balanced protein.”

The three-year research project, which focuses on yellow peas, navy beans, red lentils and chickpeas, adds to the work Cigi has undertaken over the past decade in collaboration with pulse growers and industry on the functionality and application of pulse flours. It reflects growing consumer demand for new and innovative bakery products, Sarkar says.

“We know a lot about wheat but not as much about pulses as ingredients so we want to learn more. Pulses are very new in that respect. We have started looking at the impact of storage time and particle size on pulse quality and flavour when they are used in baking or for other end-products. This is a more structured study that includes components such as a G X E (genotype versus environment) study of pulses, pre- and post-milling treatments of pulses and how this all affects the final product with respect to flavour, functionality and end-product quality.

“From beginning to end we’re mapping everything out,” he says, noting that the information will be compiled into a database and made available to industry.

“We’ll know the raw material profile, the processing profile, and specifications of the flour. The information coming out of this research will help guide us and establish some standard specifications for pulse flour that will be suitable for baking applications.”

New Warburtons products

Working with Warburtons also helps bring the information to commercial reality, Sarkar says. Warburtons has worked closely with Cigi for a number of years on an annual harvest analysis and end-use evaluation of Canadian wheat varieties the company contracts for use in its baked products.

“Pulses are a great way to create a product with high protein and fibre,” says Adam Dyck, Warburtons program manager (Canada). Last September, the 140-year-old family-owned company launched four different new protein bread products containing pulse ingredients. He notes that Warburtons developed the products in response to increasing consumer demand for healthier foods. All of the pulse flours used are from crops grown and processed in Canada.

Dyck says that although the addition of pulses can present challenges in baked goods, he is pleased with the final quality of the new products. “We successfully increased the levels of protein and fibre with pulse ingredients while maintaining Warburtons’ superior quality that makes it the top-selling bakery brand in the U.K.”

In addition to in-kind support and funding for a pilot-scale fermentation tank at Cigi from Warburtons, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers provided $1.8 million for the project last year. Funds were also allocated from the governments of Canada and Manitoba through the Grain Innovation Hub, and from the Western Grains Research Foundation and Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers. Some research activity is also being carried out at the universities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and at Warburtons’ facilities in the U.K. in support of the work at Cigi.

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Since 2014 Cigi has been conducting a four-year project funded by Pulse Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in consultation with industry to investigate the quality, functionality and nutritional value of pulses as a commercial food ingredient.

“We’re looking at the effects of processing and optimizing pulse ingredients for specific applications,” says Heather Hill, project manager, pulse flour milling and food applications. “Cigi has evaluated the use of yellow pea flour in instant noodles and breakfast cereals. Work on either pasta or extruded snacks is planned for 2017. Yellow peas were selected to explore potential opportunities as ingredients since acreage grown is relatively high but use for food is limited.”

• Read more: Boosting nutrition in gluten-free foods

Deep-fried instant noodles are consumed in more than 80 countries and are valued for their low cost, easy preparation, favourable flavour and long shelf life, she says. However, instant noodles are also high in fat and low in nutritional value (protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals).

Cigi has been investigating how particle size of the pulse ingredient as well as post-milling heat treatment affects end-product quality, Hill says. “For noodle work we heat treated the yellow pea flour through an extrusion process to partially cook or gelatinize the starch or flours to not only change their flavour profile and offset any strong raw pea taste, but their functionality as well.”

Yellow peas were milled into coarse semolina, heat treated, and then roller milled into flour. Non-heat treated yellow pea semolina was also milled and re-ground into flour. Each pea flour was then blended at a level of 20 per cent with CWRS flour for instant noodle processing. CWRS flour was also used to process a wheat control sample for comparison.

The right texture

Results revealed that the wheat noodles had the most acceptable texture followed by those made with non-heated treated pea flour and heat treated pea flour, respectively. Acceptable texture is characterized by a firm bite, a common consumer expectation from the traditional use of wheat and the gluten it contains in the processing of noodles. Noodle elasticity was reduced in noodles made with the pea flours.

Many consumers, depending on the demographic, prefer a rubbery elastic sensation with a smooth surface when eating noodles. In addition, noodles made with the heat-treated pea flour had less pea flavour.

“The non-heat-treated pea flour had a slightly stronger flavour whereas the heat-treated pea flours had less flavour but noodle texture became much softer,” says Hill. “This is interesting because different markets value different attributes. Consumers (of instant noodles) in Asia would find texture is paramount whereas in North America consumers are more sensitive to flavour. It’s very important to know how processing changes certain quality attributes.

“We are now looking at the next steps, taking what we have learned in this work to continue with optimization,” she says, noting that different ingredients can be added to improve flavour and texture.

An important benefit found in the analysis of the instant noodles made with 20 per cent yellow pea flour was a three per cent increase in protein over the wheat instant noodles, and a five per cent increase over a retail sample, Hill points out. The finding is significant as further optimization can be done to increase protein levels to possibly achieve a nutrient content claim. Levels of nutrients such as iron, niacin and potassium were also found to be higher in the noodles made with pea flour.

Hill adds that future plans include engaging a commercial noodle manufacturer to help direct noodle optimization and determine what nutrients are important to them in product development.

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From a centralized system administered by a single agency, the plan has splintered into six separate checkoffs and five different producer-run wheat and barley commissions in three provinces.

This patchwork will simplify a little on August 1, 2017, when some of the deductions are consolidated under the provincial commissions. But the greater question is about the future of the Western Grains Research Foundation as its current role in funding wheat and barley research switches over to the provincial commissions.

For its part, WGRF insists the work will continue but its role will be different.

“We will still be involved. We just won’t be involved in collecting the checkoff after July 31, 2017,” says WGRF chair Dave Sefton, who farms at Broadview, Sask.

Others say the change is part of an evolution in responsibility for collecting and distributing money to fund grain research.

“Now that these provincially elected commissions are in the game, it’s a logical transition in authority, making sure we don’t drop any of the good work that WGRF has done on our behalf,” says Brent VanKoughnet, executive director of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association.

CWB fallout

Why is all this happening? It’s fallout from Bill C-18, the “Marketing Freedom For Grain Farmers Act,” which removed the Canadian Wheat Board’s central selling desk in 2011.

Previously, the CWB managed refundable checkoff deductions on wheat and barley delivered to licensed grain buyers in Western Canada. The rate was 48 cents per tonne of wheat, of which 30 cents went to the WGRF, 15 cents to the Canadian International Grains Institute and three cents for administration. Of the 56-cent checkoff on barley, 50 cents went to the WGRF, three cents to the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre and three cents for administration.

All three groups are non-profit organizations. WGRF, created in 1981, invests in research, and has assisted in development of more than 200 wheat and barley varieties. Cigi was established in 1972 to promote Canadian grain and provide training in production, marketing and processing. Since 2000, the CMBTC has provided technical support and market information to the malting barley value chain.

CWB forwarded the checkoff revenue to the organizations. In WGRF’s case, the foundation leveraged the money by cost-sharing the expense of public research for breeding programs.

That changed in late 2011 with the passage of Bill C-18. Stripped of its central desk, the CWB was no longer able to collect checkoffs. Suddenly, the industry realized there would be no one to collect the levies. Something had to be done to keep things going. And fast.

Multiple checkoffs

The result was the formation in 2012 of producer-elected provincially regulated commissions to handle the checkoffs instead of the CWB. They are: Alberta Wheat Commission, Alberta Barley Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, SaskBarley Development Commission, and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association. (Manitoba has only one commission because the province’s wheat and barley crops are smaller than the other provinces’, but the checkoffs are still separate).

Also in the same year, the federal government established the Western Canadian Deduction (WCD), a temporary transitional checkoff on wheat and barley. The rates are the same as under the CWB. Ottawa mandated the Alberta Barley Commission to administer the WCD. ABC in turn sub-contracted with Levy Central, a program operated by the Agriculture Council of Sask­atchewan, to handle the actual collection. (Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley last year decided to do their own deductions in-house. Levy Central still does the job for Manitoba and Saskatchewan.)

Besides the WCD, growers also pay additional levies to their respective provincial commissions. The result: two separate checkoffs for each crop in each province.

For example, wheat farmers in Alberta pay a total of $1.18 per tonne, consisting of the Western Canadian Deduction of 48 cents per tonne and an Alberta Wheat Commission checkoff of 70 cents per tonne. A similar situation exists for barley.

Moving to single checkoff

Not surprisingly, farmers wonder why they have to pay two levies per crop when they paid only one previously. This has led commissions in all three provinces to move to a single checkoff on August 1, 2017, when the WCD is set to expire.

“We think it simplifies the system to have one checkoff as opposed to two because farmers are going to quite rightly ask, ‘why do you need two separate levies? What do they all do?’” says Tom Steve, general manager of the Alberta Wheat Commission in Calgary.

“It’s designed to provide some clarity and efficiency in terms of administering the funds, as well as direct accountability back to the farmers who pay the levy.”

Commissions in Alberta and Saskatchewan this past summer were drafting single checkoff proposals for their producer members to vote on. Manitoba producers have already approved single checkoffs for both wheat and barley at their annual meeting in February 2016.

As a result, come August 1, 2017, growers in Western Canada will pay a single levy for wheat and another one for barley. It’s expected Levy Central will still collect the checkoffs in Saskatchewan and Manitoba while Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley will continue their own collections in-house.

Whither, or wither, the WGRF?

But the money collected by these levies will no longer go to WGRF. Instead, the commissions will have the authority for funding wheat and barley variety development, not WGRF.

This raises the question: whither WGRF? If it no longer receives checkoff money for wheat and barley, what will it do?

Sefton is quick to assure producers WGRF isn’t going away.

“We’re a federally incorporated charitable foundation in place to enhance crop production in Western Canada. It covers Western Canada. It covers all crops. That will continue to be the mandate under which we operate.”

Sefton points out WGRF still has its endowment fund which it uses to fund a wide range of crop research for cereals, oilseeds, pulses and special crops. Currently at $120 million, the fund was established in 1981 when money was transferred from the discontinued Prairie Farm Assistance Act. Since 2000, it has received funds collected under the Canada Transportation Act in excess of the set railway revenue cap, assuring its continuance.

Sefton says WGRF has also signed five-year core agreements to ensure funding for wheat and barley research and development until 2020.

This means WGRF will still be in the game even if some of its role is shifted to the commissions, says Steve.

“The important thing for producers is that all of the commitments to funding variety development will be met,” he says. “That is the critical point because virtually all the wheat varieties that farmers grow in Western Canada come out of public programs at universities and Agriculture Canada. We need to ensure continuity is there, and it will be.”

However, Steve acknowledges decisions will eventually have to be made about WGRF’s exact function.

“We’re working with them on what the future model will look like. After August 1, 2017, we anticipate the funds will be administered by the commissions. The commissions will work on a collaborative basis to fund Agriculture Canada and university programs. The precise role of WGRF in that mix is what we still haven’t landed on.”

Three commissions, same direction?

While it’s full steam ahead for the commissions, there’s some concern about them going in different directions by focusing on local interests rather than regional ones.

That’s the case in Manitoba where producers worry they could be overshadowed by the other two provinces. Manitoba’s wheat and barley checkoffs together generate less than $2 million a year, depending on the size of the crop. Alberta collects between $5.5 million and $6 million annually for wheat alone. For that reason, Manitoba wants to make sure future research focuses on the interests of all western Canadian growers, not just those in larger provinces with deeper pockets.

“Our ability to create even a blip on the radar in research, if we were completely isolated on our own, would be so insignificant we could get left behind very easily,” VanKough­net says.

“We need to make sure we design working groups and processes to make sure the spirit of how we work together continues in a western Canadian capacity,” he says. “It takes more effort when we have three organizations to do that instead of one.”

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