The grain commission has narrowed the parameters of the CWRS class to ensure millers receive the quality they need
Canada is working to rebuild its relationship with Philippines wheat millers after they expressed a lack of confidence in Canadian wheat.
Filipino bakers recently took part in a technical exchange at the Canadian International Grains Institute. They worked with Canadian experts at the Winnipeg institution to improve their processing of Canadian crops, especially Canada Western red spring wheat.
Canadian hard red spring wheat has upset millers and bakers in the Philippines in recent years, which is in sharp contrast to the highly reliable quality a few years ago.
“We encountered a bit of a quality problem with CWRS in the past,” said Darwin Tatel of San Miguel Mills, Inc. in an interview.
“We hope with this training we are able to regain that confidence in CWRS.”
Tatel and many millers from around the world and within Canada began having trouble processing Canadian wheat after 2011, with gluten strength and other quality parameters seeming to become more variable. For millers, variability is costly because it forces them to stop and reset milling equipment.
The Canadian grain system has gradually addressed the problem by shunting wheat varieties that were causing the problems into a new category. The industry be-lieves that will solve the issue.
Bringing in buyers for sessions with the Canadian grain trade will help restore the faith these foreign buyers once had, said Yvonne Supeene, the head of baking technology at CIGI.
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“We’re hoping they import more Canadian wheat now that they better understand the quality and the challenges that we have also overcome in the last few years,” said Supeene.
Switching to other sources of wheat wasn’t ideal, so Tatel is happy to hear that Canada thinks it has its problem solved.
