SASKATOON – Saying “we’re number one” is no longer good enough in world grain markets.
Canada has always had great success selling grain based on a numerical grade. A certificate indicating a shipment was 1 CW or 2 CW wheat was all a foreign customer needed.
But the head of the Canadian Grain Commission says that’s no longer enough for today’s more sophisticated and choosy grain buyers.
“Buyers want more assurances of quality and are asking us to provide information that goes beyond the number grade,” said commission chair Milt Wakefield.
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Many customers, especially in the high-value markets, want specific information about things like protein content, moisture levels, foreign material and an assortment of technical details that tell bakers and millers exactly what they need to know.
“Numerical grades alone just won’t cut it any more,” Wakefield told delegates attending the annual meeting of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
He also warned that while the commission can provide customers with those kinds of quality assurances, it will come at a cost that will ultimately be paid by producers.
Logistical procedures will be needed to ensure the right grain with the right specifications can be gathered from the farm, segregated in the elevator system and supplied to ships.
“Whenever you talk about segregations, you talk about costs,” he said in an interview later. “Those costs are going to have to be weighed against the benefits of satisfying that particular customer.”
Not all customers are demanding that kind of detailed information, Wakefield said, and for them, the traditional grade breakdown will continue to be sufficient.
But in the higher-value markets, and in some new markets where buyers are not as familiar with our grain, the commission is often asked to provide more information.
“Legally we can do it and we have been,” he said. “But I suspect it’s going to become more and more of a demand.”
Wakefield, who had returned just the day before from a trip to Japan and China to meet with grain buyers, said the commission heard complaints about the consistency of recent cargoes of malting barley from Canada.
Some importers reported getting slightly different readings on foreign material content and germination rates than did the grain commission.
Part of the problem is that malting barley is a relatively new commodity for the Chinese and they’re not totally familiar with what the Canadian grades mean, said Wakefield, adding the commission is trying to rectify that.
“Our product is still the best,” said Wakefield. “It’s just that their sampling might be different, their procedures might be different.”
But it’s also a fact that in a large shipload of grain, quality can vary from one hold to another. The ship may average out to the right specifications but that doesn’t mean every customer getting grain from that vessel, and there could be many, will get exactly the same quality.
“The predictability is their concern.”
