Reading Time: 3 minutes Wheat growers in several exporting countries are reluctant to sell their crops with prices near four-year lows, traders, farmers and millers say, leaving flour makers with dwindling supplies and vulnerable to any potential upswing in prices.
Flour millers face supply crunch as wheat farmers tighten grip on stocks
Milling grains into value-added food ideas
With consolidation and falling commodity prices as the new norm, more grain growers are making creative decisions
Reading Time: 3 minutes The number of Canadian grain farms is shrinking. Commodity prices are under pressure. Remaining growers are farming larger parcels of land. Increasingly, the answer to consolidation and falling commodity prices is vertical integration. It isn’t for every farm, but value-added products are starting to play an important role in how grain growers remain competitive. “We […] Read more
P+H upgrading southwestern Ontario elevator
Improved unload times expected for wheat deliveries
Reading Time: < 1 minute Updated, April 6 — Agrifood firm Parrish and Heimbecker has started “major” upgrades on one of its southwestern Ontario grain elevators, with plans to dedicate the site to milling wheat. Winnipeg-based P+H said Tuesday the work already underway at its inland facility on Highway 21 just south of Kincardine will boost unloading speeds on grain […] Read more
India allows exports of wheat flour processed from imported grain
Reading Time: < 1 minute New Delhi | Reuters — India has allowed export-oriented units and the firms set up in special economic zones to export flour made from imported wheat, a government order said on Friday, conceding to the demands of food processors to allow shipments of value-added products. India will allow food processors to import duty-free wheat against […] Read more
Egypt’s private sector wheat imports stall due to dollar shortage
"We are in the red zone"
Reading Time: 2 minutes Cairo | Reuters — The price of wheat and flour used to make unsubsidized bread has spiked in Egypt as importers struggle to pay for wheat stuck at ports amid a dollar shortage, traders and the country’s chamber of cereals told Reuters this week. Around 700,000 tonnes of wheat haven’t been released from customs, causing […] Read more
Brazil clears GMO wheat flour from Argentina in global first
Sales, however, may be slow
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sao Paulo/Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Brazil on Thursday became the first country to allow imports of flour made with genetically modified wheat, though shipments of the new variety developed in Argentina are unlikely anytime soon due to opposition from Brazilian millers and global consumers. The decision may spur a broader global discussion about genetically […] Read more
Millers, bakers fret as drought withers North America’s spring wheat
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters – Millers and bakers are draining wheat reserves and paying more for spring wheat used in baking, as drought shrivels crops across the Canadian Prairies and northern U.S. Plains that produce more than half of the world’s supply. U.S. and Canadian farmers are bracing for a sharply smaller spring wheat harvest due to the […] Read more
Last year’s flour output up in most categories
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada reported on Monday that Canadian wheat millers processed 3.267 million tonnes of all wheat in 2020 — a slight increase of about 2.1 per cent over 2019, keeping flour processing on the rise over the last four years. There were also year-to-year increases in the other categories tracked by the federal […] Read more
After blast, Lebanon has less than a month’s grain reserves
Beirut port silos had capacity for 120,000 tonnes; about 15,000 tonnes were stored at time of blast
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beirut/Dubai | Reuters — Lebanon’s main grain silo at Beirut port was destroyed in a blast, leaving the nation with less than a month’s reserves of the grain but enough flour to avoid a crisis, the economy minister said on Wednesday. Raoul Nehme told Reuters a day after Tuesday’s devastating explosion that Lebanon needed reserves […] Read more
Saudi Arabia completes first phase of flour mill privatization
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dubai/London | Reuters — Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had completed the first batch of its flour milling sector privatization, according to a statement by the state grain buyer and privatization centre. The long-awaited flour mills sale was one of the first privatizations the kingdom planned as part of a wide-reaching overhaul of its […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
