Proposed new wheat class puzzles Grain Farmers

Friday, February 27, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Initially Grain Farmers of Ontario failed to see the need for a new Canada eastern general purpose wheat class but it’s now taking a closer look at the Canadian Grain Commission proposal.

The Canadian Grain Commission began consultations Feb. 20 on its proposal to modernize Canadian wheat classes. There are currently 10 classes of western Canadian wheat and seven classes of eastern Canadian wheat, the commission’s Feb. 20 press release says.

Crosby Devitt, Grain Farmers vice president, strategic development, says there isn’t a lot of detail in the commission’s consultation document on what impact the creation of the new class would have on the industry or how they would choose the varieties to include in it. “Those are some details we’re going to ask them to explain. If they created this, what market would it serve?”

Grain Farmers’ perspective is the current system works well to define classes and meet the requirements for the millers and end-users of Ontario wheat, Devitt says, adding the proposal to create a new Canada eastern general purpose wheat class comes from the commission and is not a request from industry or farmers.

Devitt notes Grain Farmers will definitely be submitting comments to the commission but “right now we’re in the process of evaluating it.”

The commission’s release says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency registers new wheat varieties, while the commission, under the Canada Grains Act, designates the varieties to specific wheat classes. Each wheat class has its own set of performance characteristics mainly based on end-use functions. “The wheat class system is part of Canada’s grain quality assurance system.”

The commission establishes wheat classes through extensive consultation with end-users, breeders, farmers, marketers and other stakeholders, the release says.

The commission’s proposal includes adjusting parameters to two western wheat classes, reviewing current classes and establishing a new Western Canada milling wheat class to provide opportunities for Canadian wheat to go into emerging markets with specific end-use requirements, the release says.

Devitt says the proposed changes to the western classes don’t have a direct impact on Ontario growers. Most of Ontario’s wheat goes into the Canadian eastern soft red winter class. Ontario-grown wheat also goes into the Canadian eastern hard red winter, Canadian eastern soft white winter and Canadian eastern hard red spring classes.

People have until April 20 to submit comments to the commission. BF