Despite reports to the contrary, organic wheat handlers want growers to plant more wheat.
Laura Telford, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers, said large buyers like Growers International Organic Sales Inc. are telling their clients not to grow more wheat.
She made the comment when asked to analyze the results of the organization’s Certified Organic Production in Canada 2005 survey, which shows slumping wheat sales despite increased acreage.
“There’s a world glut of organic wheat,” said Telford.
But Tom Cowell, a buyer with Growers International, said nothing could be further from the truth.
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“If anything, we encourage growers to grow more. We’re seeing increased demand for the product.”
He thinks the grower group may be confused because there used to be an oversupply of low quality, low protein wheat on the market due to poor crops in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
But the industry found a home for that wheat in feed markets, niche markets for low protein organic flour and by convincing millers to temporarily lower their standards.
“That glut that was there is no longer there,” said Cowell.
And there never has been an oversupply of quality milling wheat, which is what growers normally produce.
That is good because there should be plenty of it for the 2006-07 marketing campaign. This year’s harvest is of exceptional quality, albeit slightly below average protein.
Judging by the samples that have come into Growers International, 90-95 percent of the crop will be milling quality.
Cowell said the demand for that type of wheat continues to be strong and growing in Europe and North America.
While wheat-based products may not experience the same 15-20 percent growth in annual demand as the organic industry as a whole, the market pull is strong enough to encourage a slow and steady increase in acreage.
“It would be asinine for us to say to farmers ‘don’t put in more acres of red spring wheat,’ ” said Cowell.
According to COG’s 2005 survey, wheat area expanded 4.5 percent between 2004 and 2005 to 187,345 acres.
But Cowell said that acreage figure “isn’t even close to reality” based on his observations as one of the country’s largest organic wheat handlers.
“I don’t know where they’re getting their information from but it is definitely not accurate.”
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance data shows farmers in that province planted 61,380 acres of organic hard red spring wheat and 15,210 acres of durum in the 2005-06 crop year.
Saskatchewan is home to the lion’s share of organic wheat but if other provinces are included, there would be maybe 90,000 acres of organic wheat planted in 2005, which is less than half of the amount reported in the COG survey.
